Abstract
The mechanical oscillatory behavior of a C60 molecule tunneling through a carbon nanotube induced by van der Waals interaction are investigated by molecular-dynamics simulations. It is found that the C60 performs a decaying oscillation with a gradual decrease of the oscillatory amplitude and a gradual decrease of the oscillatory frequency. It is shown that this decay is due to the transformation of thermal energy and is sensitive to the change in the diameter and the degree of the helicity of the nanotube. In addition, the nanotube length can be used to tune the oscillation frequency of the C60-nanotube oscillators.