No Arabic abstract
Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films are promising materials for transparent conductive films (TCFs) with potential applications in flexible displays, touch screens, solar cells and solid-state lighting1,2. However, further reductions in resistivity and in cost of SWCNT films are necessary for high quality TCF products3. Here, we report an improved floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition method to directly and continuously produce ultrathin and freestanding SWCNT films at the hundred meter-scale. Both carbon conversion efficiency and SWCNT TCF yield are increased by three orders of magnitude relative to the conventional floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition. After doping, the film manifests a sheet resistance of 40 ohm/sq. at 90% transmittance, representing record performance for large-scale SWCNT films. Our work provides a new avenue to accelerate the industrialization of SWCNT films as TCFs.
We study the photoabsorption properties of photoactive bulk polymer/ fullerene/nanotube heterojunctions in the near-infrared region. By combining pump-probe spectroscopy and linear response time-dependent density functional theory within the random phase approximation (TDDFT-RPA) we elucidate the excited state dynamics of the $E_{11}$ transition within (6,5) and (7,5) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and combined with poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C$_{61}$-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) in P3HT/PCBM/SWNT blended samples. We find the presence of a photoinduced absorption (PA) peak is related mainly to the width of the photobleach (PB) peak and the charge carrier density of the SWNT system. For mixed SWNT samples, the PB peak is too broad to observe the PA peak, whereas within P3HT/PCBM/SWNT blended samples P3HT acts as a hole acceptor, narrowing the PB peak by exciton delocalization, which reveals a PA peak. Our results suggest that the PA peak originates from a widening of the band gap in the presence of excited electrons and holes. These results have important implications for the development of new organic photovoltaic heterojunctions including SWNTs.
We introduce a novel nanofabrication technique to directly deposit catalyst pads for the chemical vapor deposition synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) at any desired position on a substrate by Gallium focused ion beam (FIB) induced deposition of silicon oxide thin films from the metalorganic Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) precursor. A high resolution in the positioning of the SWCNTs is naturally achieved as the imaging and deposition by FIB are conducted concurrently in situ at the same selected point on the substrate. This technique has substantial advantages over the current state-of-the-art methods that are based on complex and multistep lithography processes.
We report on the production of nanodiamonds (NDs) with 70-80 nm size via bead assisted sonic disintegration (BASD) of a polycrystalline chemical vapor deposition (CVD) film. The NDs display high crystalline quality as well as intense narrowband (7 nm) room temperature luminescence at 738 nm due to in situ incorporated silicon vacancy (SiV) centers. The fluorescence properties at room and cryogenic temperatures indicate that the NDs are, depending on preparation, applicable as single photon sources or as fluorescence labels.
Uniform single layer graphene was grown on single-crystal Ir films a few nanometers thick which were prepared by pulsed laser deposition on sapphire wafers. These graphene layers have a single crystallographic orientation and a very low density of defects, as shown by diffraction, scanning tunnelling microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Their structural quality is as high as that of graphene produced on Ir bulk single crystals, i.e. much higher than on metal thin films used so far.
Innovative applications based on two-dimensional solids require cost-effective fabrication processes resulting in large areas of high quality materials. Chemical vapour deposition is among the most promising methods to fulfill these requirements. However, for 2D materials prepared in this way it is generally assumed that they are of inferior quality in comparison to the exfoliated 2D materials commonly used in basic research. In this work we challenge this assumption and aim to quantify the differences in quality for the prototypical transition metal dichalcogenide MoS$_2$. To this end single layers of MoS$_2$ prepared by different techniques (exfoliation, grown by different chemical vapor deposition methods, transfer techniques, and as vertical heterostructure with graphene) are studied by Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy, complemented by atomic force microscopy. We demonstrate that as-prepared MoS$_2$, directly grown on SiO$_2$, differs from exfoliated MoS$_2$ in terms of higher photoluminescence, lower electron concentration, and increased strain. As soon as a water film is intercalated (e.g., by transfer) underneath the grown MoS$_2$, in particular the (opto-)electronic properties become practically identical to those of exfoliated MoS$_2$. A comparison of the two most common precursors shows that the growth with MoO$_3$ causes greater strain and/or defect density deviations than growth with ammonium heptamolybdate. As part of a heterostructure directly grown MoS$_2$ interacts much stronger with the substrate, and in this case an intercalated water film does not lead to the complete decoupling, which is typical for exfoliation or transfer. Our work shows that the supposedly poorer quality of grown 2D transition metal dichalcogenides is indeed a misconception.