Abstract Submitted to the    NANOTUBE'04 Conference:

The formation of uniform and well-aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using a magnetron-type rf glow-discharge plasma has been investigated, and it has been reported that the deformation of the CNTs formed on an rf electrode is caused by the bombardment of the high energy ions which are generated by the strong plasma-sheath drop in front of the rf electrode [1]. In order to prevent the high energy ions from directly impinging on the rf electrode, we introduce very strong magnetic field which is externally applied with a superconducting magnet. The rf glow-discharge plasma for the formation of CNTs is generated using a mixture gas of CH₄ and H₂. When the magnetic field is weak (B=0.03 T), the CNTs formed on the rf electrodeare found to be deformed. When the strong magnetic field B=2 T is applied, the CNTs are observed to be well-aligned and not to be deformed. This result can be explained by the reduction of the ion bombardment energy in spite of the existence of the plasma-sheath electric field in front of the rf electrode, which is caused by the magnetization of the ions for B=2 T.

[1] T. Hirata, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 83 (2003) 1119.