Computer modelling of the plasma chemistry and plasma-based growth mechanisms for nanostructured materials

Annemie Bogaerts (1) , Maxie Eckert (1) , Ming Mao (1) , Erik Neyts (1)

1 Department of Chemistry

In this review paper, an overview is given of different modeling efforts for plasmas used for the formation and growth of nanostructured materials. This includes both the plasma chemistry, providing information on the precursors for nanostructure formation, as well as the growth processes itself. We limit ourselves to carbon (and silicon) nanostructures. Examples of the plasma modeling comprise nanoparticle formation in silane and hydrocarbon plasmas, as well as the plasma chemistry giving rise to carbon nanostructure formation, such as (ultra)nanocrystalline diamond ((U)NCD) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The second part of the paper deals with the simulation of the (plasma-based) growth mechanisms of the same carbon nanostructures, i.e., (U)NCD and CNTs, both by mechanistic modeling and detailed atomistic simulations.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Annemie Bogaerts, Maxie Eckert, Ming Mao, Erik Neyts. Computer modelling of the plasma chemistry and plasma-based growth mechanisms for nanostructured materials. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2011, 44 (17), pp.174030. ⟨10.1088/0022-3727/44/17/174030⟩. ⟨hal-00613285⟩