Abstract Submitted to the NANOTUBE'02 Workshop:

We show that circularly polarized light can spin C nanotubes with GHz frequencies. In this method, we hold a single nanotube in a laser trap, and excite it by a weak beam of circularly polarized infrared photons. The photon energy and angular momentum is resonantly absorbed by infrared -active nanotube phonons, which propagate on the tube circumpherence and can carry the angular momentum. The phonons then transfer the angular momentum to the tube body in ``umklapp" scattering processes, when they decay into pairs of acoustical phonons. We investigate the experimental realization of this ultrafast nanotube rotation, and discuss its possible applications to rotating microdevices, like nano-motors, centrifuges or stabilizers. We also present recent results related to other problems, which we have recently studied in nanotubes.