Molecular dynamics simulation of low energy cluster impacts on carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The controlled doping of carbon nanotubes is of much interest in the production of potential new nanometer scale devices. Selective doping has been achieved for many years in the silicon microelectronics industry using ion implantation as it is highly controllable. However, with nanostructures and in particular the use of carbon nanotubes the impact energy delivered with the dopant ion in conventional ion implantation is distributed to the target material in such a way that substantial damage of the structure ensues. Recently Yamada et al. have been employing large gas cluster beams at relatively low energy per atomic particle so that the target material does not undergo such direct kinetic energy transfer. This relatively new technique – known as infusion doping in silicon technology – suggests a new, less damaging, technique for introducing dopants into nanostructured materials. Here we make an initial simulation study of the impact of a large gas cluster, containing a fraction of dopant ions, onto a single wall nanotube to investigate the possible doping and survival rate of this mechanism over the more conventional single atomic ion implantation technology.