Electric field induced alignment of carbon nanotubes grown by CVD

In this report, results of the experiments devoted to developing of the method for controllable growth of CNT aligned in different directions were presented. For this purpose the usual setup for CVD was modified to provide shielding of the substrate from electric field existing between the cathode and the anode when the high voltage is applied to activate dc discharge. A mesh mask is used as the electrostatic shield. Similar to the standard CVD process, generation of C₂ species occurs in the plasma, and then these species are deposited on the substrate surface via the holes in the mask. With appropriate conditions, CNT growth was obtained on various substrates (Ni plate, quartz substrate patterned with Ni thin film stripes). An application of bias voltage between the Ni stripes allows for the partial alignment of CNT along the direction of the electric field between the stripes. This result confirms a possibility to achieve controllable growth of the CNTs.