Abstract
Corrugated carbon nanotubes containing a number of defective carbon rings can
be synthesized from the coalescence of C60 encapsulated in SWNTs (peapods). In
this letter we show that contrary to common wisdom, the presence of non-hexagonal rings can actually induce metallic behavior. To demonstrate this, we used a combination of photoluminescence studies, Raman spectroscopy,
transmission electron microscopy, and first-principle quantum calculations.
Furthermore, we demonstrate that these metallic corrugated inner tubes can be
converted into semiconducting tubes by high-temperature thermal treatment in
argon. This finding demonstrates for the first time the versatility of the electronic properties for the coalesced structures and provides a novel way to tailor them by thermal processing.
