Growth of High-Quality Carbon Nanotudes on Free-Standing Diamond Substrates (Postprint)

Carbon nanotubes (CJTs) were grown on diamond-coated Si substrates and free-standing diamond wafers to develop efficient thermal interface materials for thermal management applications. High-quality, translucent, free-standing diamond substrates were processed in a 5 kW microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system using CH4 as precursor. Ji and Ni-9%W-l.5% Fe catalyst islands were deposited to nucleate CNTs directly onto the diamond substrates. Randomly-oriented multi-walled CNTs forming a mat of 5 1m thickness and consisting of 20 nm diameter tubes were observed to grow in a thermal CVD system using C2H2 as precursor, Transmission electron microscopy and Raman analyses confirmed the presence of high-quality CNTs on diamond showing a DIG peak ratio of 0,2-0.3 in Raman spectra. Prepared in cooperation with Texas A & M University, College Station, TX and University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH. and collaboration with Army Research Office, Research Traingle Park, NC. This paper contains color. PA Case Number: 88ABW-2010-1418; Clearance Date: 23 Mar 2010. Post print published in: Carbon, V48, pp 2442-2446 (2010).