Growth of Horizontally Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on the Singular R-Plane (10–11) of Quartz

Abstract

We used both R-cut and R-face crystal quartz substrates for the efficient growth of horizontally aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The R-plane (10–11) is one of the low-index crystallographic planes of crystal quartz. The surface cut from a synthetic quartz block parallel to the R-plane was used as R-cut substrates, and the exposed R-plane was used as R-face substrates. We elucidated that the atomic structure of the R-plane causes the alignment of the SWNTs. While a step-and-terrace structure clearly appeared on R-face substrates, SWNTs were aligned on the terraced area of the R-plane, regardless of the direction of the step edges. Comparison between R-face and ST-cut substrates suggests that the ST-cut surface can be considered as a collection of tiny r-plane (01–11) domains, which are very similar to the R-plane (10–11).