# Selective Excitations of Transverse Vibrational Modes of a Carbon Nanotube through a “Shuttle-Like” Electromechanical Instability

Authors: F. Santandrea
Journal: Physics Research International
 (2010)

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## Abstract

We study the dynamics of transverse oscillations of a suspended carbon nanotube into which electron current is injected from the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). In this case
the correlations between the displacement of the nanotube and its charge state, determined by the
position-dependent electron tunneling rate, can lead to a “shuttle-like” instability for the transverse
vibrational modes. We find that selective excitation of a specific mode can be achieved by an
accurate positioning of the STM tip. This result suggests a feasible way to control the dynamics of
this nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) based on the “shuttle instability.”


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## Body


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*Source: 493478-2010-02-09.xml*