Well-defined nanostructure nucleation sites provided by the faceted TiC(111) surface

Abstract

Reproducible growth of well-aligned nanostructures with an average nearest-neighbor distance of a few hundred nanometers is achieved on an array of strong nucleation sites provided by the facetted TiC(111) surface. The growth of the complex shaped nanostructures, composed out of carbon encapsulated TiCx crystallites interconnected by nanorods, 25 nm in diameter, is fed by the thermal decomposition of TiC. The length of the nanorods and the shape of the nanocrystallites is determined by the applied annealing program.