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We investigate the motion of a nano tippe top, which is formed from a C60 fullerene, and which is assumed to be spinning on either a graphene sheet or the interior of a single-walled carbon nanotube. We assume no specific geometric configuration for the top, however for example, the nano tippe top might be formed by joining a fullerene C60 with a small segment of a smaller radius carbon nanotube. We assume that it is spinning on a graphene sheet or a carbon nanotube surface only as a means of positioning and isolating the device, and the only effect of the graphene or the carbon nanotube surface is only through the frictional effect generated at the point of the contact. We employ the same basic physical ideas originating from the classical tippe top and find that the total retarding force, which comprises both a frictional force and a magnetic force at the contact point between the C60 fullerene and the graphene sheet or the inner surface of the single-walled carbon nanotube, induces the C60 molecule to spin and precess from a standing up position to a lying down position. Unlike the classical tippe top, the nanoscale tippe top does not flip over since the gravitational effect is not sufficient at the nano scale. After the precession, while the molecular top spins about its lying down axis, if we apply the opposite retarding magnetic force at the contact point, then the molecule will return to its standing up position. The standing up and the lying down configurations of the nano tippe top during the precession and retraction processes demonstrate its potential use as a memory device in nano-computing.

In this paper, we investigate some of the classical restricted three body problems at the nanoscale, such as the circular planar restricted problem for three C60 fullerenes, and a carbon atom and two C60 fullerenes. We model the van der Waals forces between the fullerenes by the Lennard-Jones potential. In particular, the pairwise potential energies between the carbon atoms on the fullerenes are approximated by the continuous approach, so that the total molecular energy between two fullerenes can be determined analytically. Since we assume that such interactions between the molecules occur at sufficiently large distance, the classical three body problems analysis is legitimate to determine the collective angular velocity of the two and three C60 fullerenes at the nanoscale. We find that the maximum angular frequency of the two and three fullerenes systems reach the terahertz range and we determine the stationary points and the points which have maximum velocity for the carbon atom for the carbon atom and the two fullerenes system.