%0 Journal Article
%T Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition of Horizontally Aligned Carbon Nanotubes
%A Matthew T. Cole
%A William I. Milne
%J Materials
%D 2013
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/ma6062262
%X A plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition reactor has been developed to synthesis horizontally aligned carbon nanotubes. The width of the aligning sheath was modelled based on a collisionless, quasi-neutral, Child¡¯s law ion sheath where these estimates were empirically validated by direct Langmuir probe measurements, thereby confirming the proposed reactors ability to extend the existing sheath fields by up to 7 mm. A 7 mbar growth atmosphere combined with a 25 W plasma permitted the concurrent growth and alignment of carbon nanotubes with electric fields of the order of 0.04 V ¦Ìm £¿1 with linear packing densities of up to ~5 ¡Á 10 4 cm £¿1. These results open up the potential for multi-directional in situ alignment of carbon nanotubes providing one viable route to the fabrication of many novel optoelectronic devices.
%K carbon nanotube
%K in situ horizontal alignment
%K plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition
%K electric field
%U http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/6/6/2262