Plasma-controlled metal catalyst saturation and the initial stage of carbon nanostructure array growth

I. Levchenko, K. Ostrikov, D Mariotti, AB Murphy

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    15 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The kinetics of the nucleation and growth of carbon nanotube and nanocone arrays on Ni catalyst nanoparticles on a silicon surface exposed to a low-temperature plasma are investigated numerically, using a complex model that includes surface diffusion and ion motion equations. It is found that the degree of ionization of the carbon flux strongly affects the kinetics of nanotube and nanocone nucleation on partially saturated catalyst patterns. The use of highly ionized carbon flux allows formation of a nanotube array with a very narrow height distribution of half-width 7 nm. Similar results are obtained for carbon nanocone arrays, with an even narrower height distribution, using a highly ionized carbon flux. As the deposition time increases, nanostructure arrays develop without widening the height distribution when the flux ionization degree is high, in contrast to the fairly broad nanostructure height distributions obtained when the degree of ionization is low. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.2996272]
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)073308-1
    JournalJournal of Applied Physics
    Volume104
    Issue number7
    Early online date14 Oct 2008
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished online - 14 Oct 2008

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