Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) size shrinking through catalyst size reduction: Use of innovative nanodiamonds hard mask technique

摘要

We demonstrate in this study the possibility to use nanodiamonds particles as hard mask to easily produce catalyst (Nickel) nanoparticles on-wafer with size in the 10-20nm range. These nanoparticles are used to grow vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) by employing a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technic. These narrow VACNTs are grown to produce cold cathodes that will help to test predicted beam divergence scaling with emitter height.