AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Advanced Surface Engineering Wednesday Sessions
       Session SE2-WeA

Paper SE2-WeA7
Plasma Spectroscopy of Carbon Nanotubes

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 4:00 pm, Room 2007a

Session: Pulsed Plasmas in Surface Engineering
Presenter: J.G. Jones, AFRL/MLBT
Authors: J.G. Jones, AFRL/MLBT
C. Muratore, AFRL/MLBT
A.R. Waite, AFRL/MLBT
A.A. Voevodin, AFRL/MLBT
Correspondent: Click to Email
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have unique properties of thermal and electrical conductance, as well as structural properties. Samples of vertically aligned CNTs on silicon substrates were plasma treated in different background gas environments including argon/hydrogen, and argon/nitrogen for the purposes of functionalization. A high power pulsed plasma treatment was used to modify CNT surface by attaching N and H atoms. In situ spectroscopy was used to detect atomic and molecular excitation for each of the background gas environments including mixtures of argon/hydrogen, pure hydrogen, pure nitrogen and argon/nitrogen. The result demonstrated the presence of both atomic and ionized species at the vicinity of the CNT sample surfaces. In situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was performed on the treated samples to determine the chemical bonding structures, both before and after treatment. The analyses shows formation of both C-N and C-H bonds for CNT surfaces. Correlations of the plasma charateristics and chemistry and bonding of the modified CNT surfaces is discussed for different environments pulsed plasma process settings.