Abstract Submitted to the NANOTUBE'05 Conference:

Understanding the mechanism of point defect production and migration in carbon nanotubes is important for the complete comprehension of the nanotube growth and electron irradiation-stimulated transformations in nanotubes, e.g., welding and coalescence. We study the behavior of carbon nanotubes under high-energy (300 keV) electron irradiation both experimentally and theoretically. We show that multi-walled nanotubes shrink by a loss of atoms from the inner shells of the tube and by diffusion of interstitials in the axial direction through the inner hollow of the tube. Thus, experimental evidence is given that nanotubes can act as nanoscale pipes for the transport of atoms. We further study the details of defect production under electron irradiation and the annealing of single vacancies and interstitials via migration and mutual annihilation. We demonstrate that the electron threshold energy for displacing carbon atoms and the defect production rate strongly depend on the diame ter of the nanotubes. We also address the effect of nanotube atomic network curvature on the defect migration.

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