Magnet-attractive carbon nanopowder can be produced by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser (10 Hz) vaporization of pure carbon in a few % of H2 containing Ar gas at 1000°C. On the other hand, magnet-attractive nanopowder cannot be formed when vaporizing in pure Ar. As-grown carbon nanopowder includes a few to ten % of micron sized graphite flakes as the impurity. Removal of such flakes can be achieved by a centrifugal separation and the supernatant is checked by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Magnetization curve at 400 K is easy to saturate at low magnetic field of 10 kG, and no hysteresis is observed. This feature is explained by a superparamagnetism of finely dispersed ferro- or ferri-magnetic nanoparticles. Elementary analyses using electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) suggest that the observed strong magnetism should be an intrinsic carbon magnetism.

In future technology nodes, 22nm and below, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) may provide a viable alternative to Cu as an interconnect material. CNTs exhibit a current carrying capacity (up to 109 A/cm2), whilst also providing a significantly higher thermal conductivity (SWCNT ~ 5000 WmK) over Copper (106 A/cm2 and ~400WmK). However, exploiting such properties of CNTs in small vias is a challenging endeavor. In reality, to outperform Cu in terms of a reduction in via resistance alone, densities in the order of 1013 CNTs/cm2 are required. At present, conventional thermal CVD of carbon nanotubes is carried out at temperatures far in excess of CMOS temperature limits (400 C). Furthermore, high density CNT bundles are most commonly grown on insulating supports such as Al2O3 and SiO2 as they can effectively stabilize metallic nanoparticles at elevated temperatures but this limits their application in electronic devices. To circumvent these obstacles we employ a remote microwave plasma to grow high density CNTs at a temperature of 400 C on conductive underlayers such as TiN. We identify some critical factors important for high-quality CNTs at low temperatures such as control over the catalyst to underlayer interaction and plasma growth environment while presenting a fully CMOS compatible carbon nanotube synthesis approach

Graphene growth by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was studied on three types of epitaxial metal films with different crystal structures on sapphire. Nickel (face-centered-cubic: fcc), Ru (hexagonal-closed-pack: hcp), and Co (fcc at temperature for graphene growth and hcp at R.T.) were deposited on c-face sapphire substrates and annealed in a furnace for solid phase epitaxial growth. Graphene layers were grown by CVD with methane gas on the epitaxial metal film. The graphene layer uniformity was consistent with the structural simplicity of the metal film. The Ru sample had a single domain in the metal film and the highest graphene uniformity. The Co sample had a very complex crystal structure in the metal film and the poorest uniformity in graphene. The Ni sample had two types of stacking domains in the metal film and the graphene layer was uniform on each domain, but inhomogeneity was observed at domain boundaries.

Recently, it was proposed that graphene sheets deposited on silicon oxide can act as impermeable atomic membranes to standard gases, such as helium, argon, and nitrogen. It is assumed that graphene membrane is clamped over the surface due only to van der Waals forces. The leakage mechanism can be experimentally addressed only indirectly. In this work we have carried out molecular dynamics simulations to study this problem. We have considered nano-containers composed of a chamber of silicon oxide filled with gas and sealed by single and multi-layer graphene membranes. The obtained results are in good qualitative agreement with the experimental data. We observed that the graphene membranes remain attached to the substrate for pressure values up to two times the largest value experimentally investigated. We did not observe any gas leakage through the membrane/substrate interface until the critical limit is reached and then a sudden membrane detachment occurs.

Polymerized C60 crystals were grown using the free electron laser (FEL) irradiation. In order to promote the polymerization degree, hole or electron was doped in the C60 crystals grown by the liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation (LLIP) method to eliminate the degradation by oxidation. The specimen grown with the I2 dissolved butylalcohol (BTA, CH3(CH2)3OH) and the C60 saturation o-xylene solution, subsequently pressed at 7GPa, showed only Ag(2)-derived mode at 1456 cm-1 after the FEL irradiation. The specimen belonged to so-called F phase, which is not obtained by the typical photo-induced polymerization process. It was noted that the FEL irradiation for polymerization of C60 was quite useful.

Influence of the linear energy-momentum relationship in graphene on conductance and magnetoresistance (MR) in ferromagnetic metal (FM)/graphene/FM lateral junctions is studied in a numerical simulation formulated using the Kubo formula and recursive Green’s function method in a tight-binding model. It is shown that the contribution of electron tunneling through graphene should be considered in the electronic transport in metal/graphene/metal junctions, and that the Dirac point (DP) is effectively shifted by the band mixing between graphene and metal electrodes. It is shown that MR appears due to spin-dependent shift of DP or spin-dependent change in the electronic states at DPs. It is shown that the MR ratio caused by the latter mechanism can be very high when certain transition metal alloys are used for electrodes. These results do not essentially depend on the shape of the junction structure. However, to obtain high MR ratios, the effects of roughness should be small.