Selective Growth of Carbon Nanotubes on Silicon from Electrodeposited Nickel Catalyst

This paper presents the selective growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) inside via holes using electrochemical deposition (ECD) of the catalyst. Nickel was electrodeposited on silicon at the bottom of the via holes from an alkaline bath. Vias were filled with nickel after approximately 5 seconds; however, for CNT growth only 0.2 seconds deposition time was necessary to obtain high density CNT arrays. The nanotube structures were multiwalled (MW) with an average diameter of 20 nm. These results demonstrate that ECD is a very suitable technique for selective catalyst placement with excellent control over the catalyst size, location, and subsequent CNT growth.