Zipper Mechanism of Nanotube Fusion: Theory and Experiment

Mina Yoon¹, Seungwu Han^2,*, Gunn Kim³, Sang Bong Lee³, Savas Berber¹, Eiji Osawa⁴, Jisoon Ihm³, Mauricio Terrones⁵, Florian Banhart⁶, Jean-Christophe Charlier⁷, Nicole Grobert⁸, Humberto Terrones⁵, Pulickel M. Ajayan⁹, and David Tománek^1,†
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-2320, USA
²Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
³School of Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea
⁴NanoCarbon Research Institute Limited, Chosei-mura, Chosei-gun, Chiba 2994395, Japan
⁵Advanced Materials Department, IPICyT, Avenida Venustiano Carranza 2425-A, 78210 San Luis Potosí, SLP, México
⁶Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Mainz, Welderweg 11, 55099 Mainz, Germany
⁷Université Catholique de Louvain, PCPM&CERMIN, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
⁸Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 3, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
⁹Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180-3590, USA

^*Permanent address: Department of Physics, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea.

^†Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Electronic address: tomanek@pa.msu.edu