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.
Publication Date
10-14-2008
Document Type
Article
Department, Program, or Center
Microelectronic Engineering (KGCOE)
Recommended Citation
I. Levchenko, K. Ostrikov, D. Mariotti, and A.B. Murphy, Journal of Applied Physics 104, 073308 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2996272
Campus
RIT – Main Campus
Comments
This is the post-print of an article published by the American Institute of Physics. Copyright 2005 American Institute of Physics. The final, published version is available here: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2996272
Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works in February 2014.