Growth of Carbon Nanotubes on CarbonCobalt Films with Different sp2sp3 Ratios

Abstract EN

The need of barrier layer such as SiO2 for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) growth limits their performance in electronic applications.

In this study, conductive carbon/metal (carbon/cobalt—C:Co) composite films with the same metal content, but different sp2/sp3 ratios, were deposited using dual-source filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique.

Three different C:Co composite films were deposited at different temperatures; visible Raman spectroscopy indicates that the sp2-rich C:Co composite film forms at high temperature (500°C), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) shows the formation of conducting graphitic-like sp2 clusters and with Co nanoclusters embedded within them.

Electrical measurement shows a significant decrease in film resistivity as sp2/sp3 ratio increases.

CNTs were successfully grown on the composite films by plasma-enhanced vapor deposition (PECVD) approach.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows minor effect on the density of CNTs by varying the sp2/sp3 ratio.

The dependence of defect level of the as-grown CNTs is found to reduce as sp2/sp3 ratio increases.