title: Spontaneous decay of excited atomic states near a carbon nanotube.
abstract: The spontaneous decay process of an excited atom placed inside or outside a carbon nanotube is analyzed. Calculations have been performed for various achiral nanotubes. The effect of the nanotube surface is shown to increase the atomic spontaneous decay rate by up to 6 orders of magnitude compared with that of the same atom in vacuum. This increase is associated with nonradiative decay via surface excitations in the nanotube.
authors.affiliation: The Institute for Nuclear Problems, The Belarusian State University, Bobruiskaya Street 11, 220050 Minsk, Belarus.
authors.forename: I V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Bondarev
authors.forename: G Ya
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Slepyan
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Maksimenko