A solo carbon nanotube (CNT) was successfully grown on nickel electrodes by a microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) method equipped with an impedance-matched substrate holder with the reaction gases composed of hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) mixtures. An introduction of carbon dioxide gas before CNTs growth, the substrate temperature can easily be reached above 610 degrees C even heated at a low microwave power. This can be enunciated from fact that carbon dioxide inherits with higher bond energy for molecular dissociation, lower thermal conductivity, and higher heat capacity in comparing to other gases. The electron field emissions for randomly aligned CNTs and well-aligned CNTs grown by MPECVD and by radio frequency assisted hot-filament methods, respectively, are measured and compared. The higher field emission characteristic of the randomly aligned CNTs is presumed to be due to the protruded CNTs, which inheriting with less screening effect and manifesting with defects are crucial to play the effective emission sites.

The magnetic properties of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) grown by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) were studied by electron paramagnetic resonance and magnetization measurements. The ferromagnetic characters of virgin grown MWCNTs are mainly attributed to the catalyst nanoparticles embedded on the tips. After acid etching for purification, the trace of magnetic resonance prominently distributed from the remnant of catalyst nanoparticles within the lower sectional parts of the tubes and partially might come from the unpaired spins of CNTs. The free radicals from the unbounded carbons and the itinerant conduction electrons of metallic CNTs also contribute to the electron spin resonance. Magnetization measured by a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) reveals fairly a small hysteretic loop with small coercive field for both virgin and purified MWCNTs.

Growth and annealing effects of Ge/Cu(111) ultrathin films as deposited at ambient temperature have been studied using Auger electron spectroscopy and low-energy electron diffraction techniques. Ge/Cu(111) system shows a 1×1 structure up to 5 monolayers as deposited at 300 K. The kinetic energy of Cu L3M45M45 Auger electrons shifts to a lower value upon deposition of Ge overlayers. This could be explained by the electric charge transfer between Ge and Cu atoms. From the intensity ratio change of Auger signals (IGe/ICu), significant interdiffusion of Ge/Cu(111) films occurs around 375 K. Owing to the formation of a Cu-rich surface layer, the Cu L3M45M45 peak restores to the initial kinetic energy of a clean Cu(111) surface at 500 K.

A homemade microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method was used to grow a multiwalled carbon nanotube between two nickel catalyst electrodes. To investigate the transport properties and electron scattering mechanism of this interconnection (of approximately fixed length and fixed diameter), we carried out a model analysis of temperature dependence of resistivity. To explain the abnormal behavior of the negative temperature coefficient of resistivity in our experimental results, we then employed theories, such as hopping conductivity theory and variable range hopping conductivity theory, to describe resistivity in the high-and low-temperature ranges, respectively. Further, the grain boundary scattering model is also provided to fit the entire measured curve of temperature dependence of resistivity.

Pt thin films 50–300 Å thick were deposited onto the p-type, (111)-oriented Si substrate with the substrate kept at 450 °C during film deposition, while silicide formations and their microstructures were investigated by transmission electron diffraction and x-ray diffraction analysis. It was found that for different thicknesses of the deposited Pt films, the silicides were formed in different phases and different microstructures in the as-deposited sample. β-Pt2Si was observed in the samples of 50- and 200-Å-thick deposited Pt films, but with different orientations. And if the thickness of the Pt deposited layer was increased to 300 Å, the as-deposited sample will present the formation of the PtSi epitaxial layer, Pt polycrystalline, and the texture polycrystalline of α-Pt2Si. This film thickness effect is believed to be due to the grain growth and/or grain transformation of various grain orientations at different film thickness depositions.