  In this letter, we demonstrate a strong dependence of the electrostatic
deformation of doubly-clamped single-walled carbon nanotubes on both the field
strength and the tube length, using molecular simulations. Metallic nanotubes
are found to be more sensitive to an electric field than semiconducting ones of
the same size. For a given electric field, the induced deformation increases
with tube length but decreases with tube radius. Furthermore, it is found that
nanotubes can be more efficiently bent in a center-oriented transverse electric
field.
