Quantitative analysis of electronic properties of carbon nanotubes by scanning probe microscopy: From atomic to mesoscopic length scales

A combination of first-principles and continuum theory applied to the analysis of the interaction between a probe and a one-dimensional system was shown. The screening of nanotubes in the presence of a uniform field was addressed. The external change induced a polarization on the nanotube which decayed slowly along the tube, in agreement with electrostatics of one-dimensional system. It was found that the local potential at a nanotube on a substrate could be calculated quantitatively.