title: Femtosecond laser modification of an array of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes intercalated with Fe phase nanoparticles.
abstract: Femtosecond lasers (FSL) are playing an increasingly important role in materials research, characterization, and modification. Due to an extremely short pulse width, interactions of FSL irradiation with solid surfaces attract special interest, and a number of unusual phenomena resulted in the formation of new materials are expected. Here, we report on a new nanostructure observed after the interaction of FSL irradiation with arrays of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) intercalated with iron phase catalyst nanoparticles. It was revealed that the FSL laser ablation transforms the topmost layer of CNT array into iron phase nanospheres (40 to 680 nm in diameter) located at the tip of the CNT bundles of conical shape. Besides, the smaller nanospheres (10 to 30 nm in diameter) are found to be beaded at the sides of these bundles. Some of the larger nanospheres are encapsulated into carbon shells, which sometime are found to contain CNTs. The mechanism of creation of such nanostructures is proposed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Integrated Micro- and Nanosystems, Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, P, Brovka St, 6, Minsk 220013, Republic of Belarus. prudnikova@bsuir.by.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Labunov
authors.forename: Alena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prudnikava
authors.forename: Serguei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bushuk
authors.forename: Serguei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Filatov
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shulitski
authors.forename: Beng Kang
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.forename: Yury
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shaman
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basaev