It is about 15 years that the carbon nanotubes have been discovered by Sumio Iijima in a transmission electron microscope. Since that time, these long hollow cylindrical carbon molecules have revealed being remarkable nanostructures for several aspects. They are composed of just one element, Carbon, and are easily produced by several techniques. A nanotube can bend easily but still is very robust. The nanotubes can be manipulated and contacted to external electrodes. Their diameter is in the nanometer range, whereas their length may exceed several micrometers, if not several millimeters. In...

It is about 15 years that the carbon nanotubes have been discovered by Sumio Iijima in a transmission electron microscope. Since that time, these long hollow cylindrical carbon molecules have revealed being remarkable nanostructures for several aspects. They are composed of just one element, Carbon, and are easily produced by several techniques. A nanotube can bend easily but still is very robust. The nanotubes can be manipulated and contacted to external electrodes. Their diameter is in the nanometer range, whereas their length may exceed several micrometers, if not several millimeters. In...

Material particles, electrons, atoms, molecules, interact with one another by means of electromagnetic forces. That is, these forces are the cause of their being combined into condensed (liquid or solid) states. In these condensed states, the motion of the particles relative to one another proceeds in orderly fashion; their individual properties as well as the electric and magnetic dipole moments and the radiation and absorption spectra, ordinarily vary little by comparison with their properties in the free state. Exceptiotls are the special so-called collective states of condensed media that...