title: Effect of ion bombardment on the synthesis of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition.
abstract: The synthesis of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (VA-SWNTs) by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) was achieved at 500-600 °C, using ethylene as the carbon source and 1 nm Fe film as the catalyst. For growth of high-quality VA-SWNTs in a plasma sheath, it is crucial to alleviate the undesirable ion bombardment etching effects by the optimization of plasma input power and gas pressure. The resistibility of synthesized VA-SWNTs against ion bombardment etching was found to be closely related to the growth temperature. At relatively low temperature (500 °C), the VA-SWNTs were very susceptible to ion bombardments, which could induce structural defects, and even resulted in a structural transition to few-walled nanotubes. For capacitively coupled radio frequency (rf) PECVD operating at moderate gas pressure (0.3-10 Torr), the ion bombardment etching effect is mainly dependent on the ion flux, which is related to the plasma input power and gas pressure.
authors.affiliation: Applied Catalysis, Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, 627833, Singapore. Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637616, Singapore.
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Sanhua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Yumeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Jianmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Jixuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shanzhong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jianyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Zexiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shen