Abstract Submitted to the    NANOTUBE'04 Conference:

The aim of this work is to study in detail the growth process of multi-wall and single-wall carbon nanotubes from thin metal catalyst by using Nanoauger spectroscopy. The growth is performed by CVD using a thin film triple metal (Al/Fe/Mo) catalyst, by a rapid growth process (gas C2H2, 1000 ^oC, 5 s) directly on silicon substrates [1]. Recently, a considerable amount of work has been performed using thin film metal layers as the catalyst for nanotube growth, however, the physical phenomena of transforming a thin metal layer into nanosize particles has not been fully understood. We intend to show how the catalyst is transformed and how it diffuses at different growth temperatures. A surface elemental map study is also presented providing a clear view of the distribution of the catalyst on the surface. We observe that during the formation of SWCNT’s at high temperatures (~ 1000 ^oC), the initial Fe layer (~ 1 nm) is transformed into nano-size particles at the surface. In addition, the Al layer also plays a critical role as a suitable under-layer by being altered into Al2O3 particles. Finally, we will show how Nanoauger spectroscopy can also be used to directly observe single-wall carbon nanotubes.

[1] R. G. Lacerda et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 269 (2004).