Enhanced cold wall CVD reactor growth of horizontally aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes

• Published in: Electronic materials letters Vol. 12; no. 3; pp. 329 - 337
• Main Authors: Mu, Wei, Kwak, Eun-Hye, Chen, Bingan, Huang, Shirong, Edwards, Michael, Fu, Yifeng, Jeppson, Kjell, Teo, Kenneth, Jeong, Goo-Hwan, Liu, Johan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials 01.05.2016; 대한금속·재료학회
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; cold-wall; Condensed Matter Physics; CVD; horizontally aligned; hot-wall; Materials Science; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Optical and Electronic Materials; SWCNTs; synthesis; 전자/정보통신공학; CVD; synthesis; cold-wall; hot-wall; horizontally aligned; SWCNTs
• ISSN: 1738-8090; 2093-6788; 2093-6788
• DOI: 10.1007/s13391-016-6012-6

HASynthesis of horizontally-aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (HA-SWCNTs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) directly on quartz seems very promising for the fabrication of future nanoelectronic devices. In comparison to hot-wall CVD, synthesis of HA-SWCNTs in a cold-wall CVD chamber not only means shorter heating, cooling and growth periods, but also prevents contamination of the chamber. However, since most synthesis of HA-SWCNTs is performed in hot-wall reactors, adapting this well-established process to a cold-wall chamber becomes extremely crucial. Here, in order to transfer the CVD growth technology from a hot-wall to a cold-wall chamber, a systematic investigation has been conducted to determine the influence of process parameters on the HA-SWCNT’s growth. For two reasons, the cold-wall CVD chamber was upgraded with a top heater to complement the bottom substrate heater; the first reason to maintain a more uniform temperature profile during HA-SWCNTs growth, and the second reason to preheat the precursor gas flow before projecting it onto the catalyst. Our results show that the addition of a top heater had a significant effect on the synthesis. Characterization of the CNTs shows that the average density of HA-SWCNTs is around 1 - 2 tubes/ μ m with high growth quality as shown by Raman analysis.