A phenomenological model of the rotation dynamics of carbon nanotube gears with laser electric fields

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Abstract
A phenomenological model for the rotational dynamics of a single laser-powered molecular motor is discussed and tested through molecular dynamics simulations. The motor is used to power carbon nanotube-based gears. For a given laser power density and arrangement of free charges in the body of the gear we have defined an intrinsic frequency of the gear oscillatory rotations. The nanotube rotations are not of an oscillatory nature if the laser field frequency is of the same order of magnitude as the intrinsic frequency of the tube and there is an additional phase match between the two. For the laser-powered gear motor dynamics, the rotational angular momentum of the driven gear tend to stabilize the rotational dynamics of the system, and unidirectional rotations for the entire duration of the simulations are observed.