The origin of the metal enrichment of carbon nanostructures produced by laser ablation of a carbon-nickel target

Compositional analysis of metal-containing carbon thin films and nanostructures produced by pulsed laser ablation of a carbon-nickel target revealed significantly higher fractions of nickel in the materials than in the target used to produce them. Ablation of mixed targets is used routinely in the synthesis of carbon nanotubes and to enhance the conductivity of amorphous carbon films by metal incorporation. In this extensive study we investigate the physical mechanisms underlying this metal-enrichment and relate changes in the dynamics of the ablation plumes with increasing background gas pressure to the composition of deposited materials. The failure to preserve the target atom ratios cannot, in this case, be attributed to conventional mechanisms for non-stoichiometric transfer. Instead, nickel-enrichment of the target surface by back-deposition, combined with significantly different propagation dynamics for C atoms, Ni atoms and alloy clusters through the background gas, appears to be the cause of the high nickel fractions.