Intrinsic energy loss mechanisms in a cantilevered carbon nanotube beam oscillator.

Classical molecular dynamics is applied to study the energy dissipation (the Q factor) of the cantilever-type beam oscillators of single wall and double-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The study finds that the Q factor of the CNT beam oscillator varies with the temperature T following the 1/T(0.36) dependence. For single wall CNT, the Q factor drops from 2 x 10(5) at 0.05 K to 1.5 x 10(3) at 293 K. The study further reveals that the weak interlayer binding strength and the interlayer commensurance significantly increases the energy dissipation in the double-walled CNT oscillator.