Effect of ion impact on incubation time of single-walled carbon nanotubes grown by plasma chemical vapor deposition

The effect of ion impact on the incubation time of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) during plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been studied. Based on the systematic investigations, the incubation time of large-diameter SWNTs was found to be sensitive to the ion impact during plasma CVD. The incubation time difference (Δt_i) between small- and large-diameter SWNTs can increase up to 120 s with the introduction of appropriate ion impact during the growth process of the SWNTs. The selectivity of the effects of ion impact on the incubation time of small- and large-diameter SWNTs was also found to be sensitive to the hydrogen concentration during plasma CVD. This indicates that the hydrogen ion can play an important role during the nucleation period in the development of SWNTs with plasma CVD. Since the increase in Δt_i for each chirality is important for the realization of chirality-selective growth of SWNTs, we believe that our findings can contribute to this aspect, one of the main goals in the science and application fields of SWNTs.