Room-temperature growth of ion-induced carbon nanofibers: Effects of ion species

Graphite surfaces were bombarded with Ne, Ar and Xe ions at 450 eV–1 keV to induce the carbon nanofiber (CNF) growth at room temperature, and the dependence of size and numerical density of ion-induced CNFs on the ion species and ion energy was investigated in detail. The ion-sputtered surfaces were covered with densely distributed conical protrusions and aligned CNFs grew on the tips, except for the lowenergy Xe-sputtered surfaces. Longer CNFs grew by lighter-mass-ion irradiation, and finer CNFs formed by heavier-mass-ion bombardment. In addition, the higher the ion energy, the longer the length of the ion-induced CNFs. Because the size and numerical density were controllable by the ion-irradiation parameters, ion-induced CNFs were believed to be quite promising for myriad of applications such as high-resolution scanning probe microscope cantilevers, bio-cell manipulators and field emission source operating at low voltage. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.