Nonlinear vibrations of carbon chain resonators tuned by temperature

Nonlinear vibration of a carbon chain in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is investigated by both Euler beam model and molecular dynamics (MD) method. Forced vibration of the carbon chain based on the Euler beam model is studied and the response-frequency curve of the carbon chain shows clear nonlinearity of the hardening type. In particular, the Euler beam model together with the law of energy equipartition is further utilized to study thermal vibrations of the carbon chain. Our results show that the fundamental frequency of the carbon chain increases with increasing temperature. For a given temperature, the amplitude of the carbon chain considering the nonlinear vdW force is smaller than that of the linear situation. All results from the present Euler model are in reasonable agreement with those of our MD simulations. The present results suggest that the carbon chain-CNTs system can be adapted to the nano resonators tuned by temperature. (paper)