We show that electron irradiation in a dedicated scanning transmission microscope can be used as a nano-electron-lithography technique allowing the controlled reshaping of single walled carbon and boron nitride nanotubes. The required irradiation conditions have been optimised on the basis of total knock-on cross sections calculated within density functional based methods. It is then possible to induce morphological modifications, such as a change of the tube chirality, by removing severals tens of atoms with a nanometrical spatial resolution. These irradiation techniques could open new opportunities for nano-engeneering a large variety of nanostructured materials.
@article{arxiv.0709.0880,
title = {Shaping single walled nanotubes},
author = {Alberto Zobelli and Alexandre Gloter and Chris P. Ewels and Christian Colliex},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.0880},
year = {2008}
}