CONTROLLED GROWTH OF VERTICALLY ALIGNED CARBON NANOFIBERS FOR APPLICATIONS IN NANOSCALE DEVICES

摘要

We report on various aspects of the catalytic growth of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) by direct current plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE CVD) that are important for nanoscale device applications. To integrate the VACNFs as functional elements into nanoscale devices their properties, such as height, diameter, sharpness, shape, alignment, chemical composition etc., have to be reproducibly controlled. The process development involves study of the multidimensional parameter space of the PECVD process (temperature, gas mixture, total gas flow, pressure, plasma current and voltage, growth time), as well as the dependence of the results on the substrate and catalyst material, catalyst thickness and lithographically defined pattern, and more subtle but important factors. Some of the issues that are important for the growth on the wafer scale and integration with the other microfabrication processes are also discussed.