Fabrication of silicon carbide nanowires/carbon nanotubes heterojunction arrays byhigh-flux Si ion implantation

Abstract

An array of silicon carbide nanowire (SiCNW)–carbon nanotube (CNT) heterojunctionswas fabricated by high-flux Si ion implantation into a multi-walled carbon nanotube(MWCNT) array with a metal vapor vacuum arc (MEVVA) ion source. Under Siirradiation, the top part of a CNT array was gradually transformed into an amorphousnanowire array with increasing Si dose while the bottom part still remained aCNT structure. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis shows that theSiC compound was produced in the nanowire part even at the lower Si dose of5 × 1016 ions cm−2, and the SiC amount increased with increasing the Si dose. Therefore, the fabrication of aSiCNW–CNT heterojunction array with the MEVVA technique has been successfullydemonstrated. The corresponding formation mechanism of SiCNWs was proposed.