Ab initio studies of electromechanical effects in carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes have recently attracted interest for their possible applications as nanoactuators and nanoswitches, as well as possible building blocks for nanoelectronics. We present ab initio calculations for uniformly charged graphene and (11,0),(9,0) and (5,5) carbon nanotubes. We also consider the effects of polaron formation in these systems. The strain-charge coeÆcient is calculated and compared for both graphene and the nanotubes under study