Influence of nonlinear atomic interaction on excitation of intrinsic localized modes in carbon nanotubes

Excitation of intrinsic localized modes (ILMs) in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with different chiral structures was investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. For CNTs with a chiral angle less than or equal to 30∘, energy concentration that continued for more than 200 fs was found in a localized area, where a pair of neighboring atoms strongly oscillated with a higher vibrational frequency than the upper bound of phonon bands. This evidently indicates excitation of the ILM. On the other hand, the ILM was not excited in CNTs with a chiral angle greater than or equal to 41∘. Analyzing the nonlinearity of the interaction between excited atoms in the ILM vibration mode, we elucidated that nonlinearity predominates the selective ILM excitation. Furthermore, stronger nonlinearity excites ILMs with both higher frequency and longer lifetime.