Plasmon excitation in single wall carbon nanotubes by penetrating charged particles

S. SEGUI; D. J. MOWBRAY; J. L. GERVASONI; Z. L. MISKOVIC; N. R. ARISTA

Valparaíso

Encuentro; V Encuentro Sudamericano de Colisiones Inelásticas en la Materia; 2010

Universidad Técnica F. Santa María

The excitation of plasmons in singleandmulti-walled nanotubes has been theobject of several experimental and theoreticalstudies in recent years, since it plays animportant role in a variety of interestingphenomena, such as probing the nanotuberesponse by EELS, formation of electronimage states, etc.Due to the geometry of single-wallednanotubes, and the characteristics of theelectronic structure of carbonaceousnanostructures (with σ and π orbitals), theexcitation of plasmons is convenientlydescribed by a two-fluids formulation of thehydrodynamic model. In this formulation, σand π electrons are treated as separate twodimensionalfluids constrained to the samecylindrical surface. The electrostaticinteraction between the fluids gives rise tosplitting of the plasmon frequencies into twogroups of distinct energies.In this work we present a quantizationof the two-fluids hydrodynamic model [1].This procedure allows us to obtain theaverage number of plasmons excited by a fastcharged particle impinging on the nanotube atdifferent positions. We also calculate severalother quantities, such as the stopping power,energy loss spectra and total energy loss,which could be compared with experimentalmeasurements. We study the effect of variousparameters, such as the velocity of theincident particle, the impact parameter, theinclination of the trajectory with respect tothe tube’s axis, etc