Growth process of close-packed aligned carbon nanotubes on SiC

Abstract

Densely aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by surface decomposition of SiC (0001¯) C-face in vacuum were observed by plan-view transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the wall number of CNTs was directly proportional to the diameter of CNTs. Comparing with the theoretical calculation, it was revealed that all of the carbon atoms remained on the surface after the selective evaporation of Si atoms by decomposition of each monolayer of SiC (0001¯), and then constructed the CNT walls with the minimum diffusion distance at the interface.