• 文献标题:   Twisting or untwisting graphene twisted nanoribbons without rotation
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   FONSECA AF
  • 作者关键词:  
  • 出版物名称:   PHYSICAL REVIEW B
  • ISSN:   2469-9950 EI 2469-9969
  • 通讯作者地址:  
  • 被引频次:   3
  • DOI:   10.1103/PhysRevB.104.045401
  • 出版年:   2021

▎ 摘  要

The common sense regarding twisting or untwisting a ribbon is that it requires the application of an external rotation to happen. However, at nanoscale, the application of precise amounts of rotation on a nanoribbon is not a trivial task. Here, the concept of an alternative method to add twist to or remove twist from a twisted graphene nanoribbon (TGNR) without rotation is presented and computationally demonstrated. The method consists of suspending a TGNR on two separate substrates and, by changing only their distance, the total amount of twist of the TGNR is shown to change. The possibility of fine-tuning the amount of twist of a TGNR is also shown. The concept is demonstrated through fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations and numerical calculations of the topological parameters twist and writhe of a TGNR. It is shown that the above process satisfies the so-called linking number theorem of space curves. Besides being capable of precisely determining the total twist of a TGNR, this concept reveals a twist to writhe transition phenomenon that is tension-free and does not require controlling either the nanoribbon end-to-end distance or its critical twist density.