Abstract
Carbon nanotube (CNT) films were grown by microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process on four types of Si substrates: (i) mirror polished, (ii) catalyst patterned, (iii) mechanically polished having pits of varying size and shape, and (iv) electrochemically etched. Iron thin film was used as catalytic material and acetylene and ammonia as the precursors. Morphological and structural characteristics of the films were investigated by scanning and transmission electron microscopes, respectively. CNT films of different morphology such as vertically aligned, randomly oriented flowers, or honey-comb like, depending on the morphology of the Si substrates, were obtained. CNTs had sharp tip and bamboo-like internal structure irrespective of growth morphology of the films. Comparative field emission measurements showed that patterned CNT films and that with randomly oriented morphology had superior emission characteristics with threshold field as low as ~2.0 V/μm. The defective (bamboo-structure) structures of CNTs have been suggested for the enhanced emission performance of randomly oriented nanotube samples.
Highlights
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [1] have attracted wide attention both in the research and industrial communities because of their unique structural and physical properties
CNT films of different morphology were grown on Si substrates with different initial morphology by Microwave plasma-enhanced CVD (MPECVD)
It is found that substrate morphology strongly affects the growth morphology of CNTs in a MPECVD process
Summary
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [1] have attracted wide attention both in the research and industrial communities because of their unique structural and physical properties. Several parameters such as density, length of CNTs, open/closed tips, defects, adsorbates, presence of metal particles, etc., have been reported to affect the FE characteristics of MWNT films deposited catalytically by different CVD techniques [18].
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