IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Nanotubes: Science and Applications Topical Conference Tuesday Sessions
       Session NT+EL+NS-TuM

Paper NT+EL+NS-TuM11
Energy-Filtered Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction from Carbon Nanotubes

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 11:40 am, Room 133

Session: Nanotubes: Growth and Characterization
Presenter: J.T. Drotar, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Authors: J.T. Drotar, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
B.-Q. Wei, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Y.-P. Zhao, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
G. Ramanath, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
P.M. Ajayan, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
T.-M. Lu, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
G.-C. Wang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Correspondent: Click to Email
Using reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), we have observed energy-filtered diffraction patterns from both vertically aligned and randomly oriented multi-walled carbon nanotube samples. The diffraction patterns show a ring structure that roughly corresponds to powder diffraction from graphite. Using a simple kinematic treatment, we were able to obtain information on the crystal structure of the individual nanotubes from the radial profiles of the rings. The interlayer spacing is significantly higher than in graphite, and there is almost no evidence of interlayer correlation. This is consistent with previous x-ray diffraction studies of multi-walled carbon nanotubes. We were also able to obtain information on the alignment and spacing of nanotubes. For the vertically aligned sample, the center to center spacing of the nanotubes was found, from reflection electron energy-loss spectra (REELS), to be 52 ± 12 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this study constitutes the first observation of RHEED patterns from multi-walled nanotubes. @FootnoteText@ This work was supported by NSF and the Interconnects Focus Center New York.