title: Smoothest bearings: interlayer sliding in multiwalled carbon nanotubes
abstract: The well-defined geometry and extreme structural anisotropy of a multiwalled carbon nanotube can bring qualitatively new features to its nanometer-scale tribology. Efficient cancellation of registration-dependent interactions in incommensurate tubes (and also, surprisingly, certain axial commensurate tubes) can induce extremely small and nonextensive shear strengths.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, 104 Davey Lab, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA.
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Kolmogorov
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Crespi