Diffusion plasma chemical vapour deposition yielding freestanding individual single-walled carbon nanotubes on a silicon-based flat substrate

Isolated freestanding single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been successfully produced on silicon-based flat substrates using diffusion plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition. The quantitative effects of plasma parameters, such as ion density and sheath electric field, on the growth and tube alignments of freestanding SWNTs are discussed on the basis of Langmuir probe measurements and simple calculations.