Controlling the initial phase of PECVD growth of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers on TiN
Journal article, 2011

We explore the growth of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, using lithographically defined Ni catalyst seeds on TiN. TiN is selected for being an electrically conducting diffusion barrier suitable for the realization of electronic devices. We show that the rate of Ni diffusion correlates to both the level of oxygen content in the TiN film and to the film resistivity. The synthesis of the nanofibers was characterized using electron microscopy with an emphasis on three growth parameters: substrate temperature, plasma power, and chamber pressure. We propose that a catalyst surface free from carbon deposits throughout the process will induce diffusion-limited growth. The growth will shift towards a supply-limited process when the balance between acetylene, as the effective carbon bearing gas, and atomic hydrogen, as the main etching agent, is skewed in favor of acetylene. This determines whether the dominating growth mode will be vertically aligned 'tip-type' or disordered 'base-type', by affecting the competition between the formation of the first graphitic sheets on the catalyst surface and at the catalyst-substrate interface. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Author

Farzan Alavian Ghavanini

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Electronics Material and Systems

María Elena López Damián

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Electronics Material and Systems

Damon Rafieian

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Electronics Material and Systems

Krister Svensson

Karlstad University

Per Lundgren

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Electronics Material and Systems

Peter Enoksson

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Electronics Material and Systems

Sensors and Actuators, A: Physical

0924-4247 (ISSN)

Vol. 172 1 347-358

Areas of Advance

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Transport

Production

Materials Science

Subject Categories

Other Engineering and Technologies

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Infrastructure

Nanofabrication Laboratory

DOI

10.1016/j.sna.2011.04.036

More information

Latest update

5/23/2018