We report a novel phenomenon in carbon nanotube (CNT) based devices, the transphonon effects, which resemble the transonic effects in aerodynamics. It is caused by dissipative resonance of nanotube phonons similar to the radial breathing mode, and subsequent drastic surge of the dragging force on the sliding tube, and multiple phonon barriers are encountered as the intertube sliding velocity reaches critical values. It is found that the transphonon effects can be tuned by applying geometric constraints or varying chirality combinations of the nanotubes.
@article{arxiv.0709.0989,
title = {Trans-phonon effects in ultrafast nano-devices},
author = {Zhiping Xu and Quanshui Zheng and Qing Jiang and Chi-Chiu Ma and Yang Zhao and Guanhua Chen and Huajian Gao and Gexue Ren},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.0989},
year = {2009}
}