Effect of swift heavy ion irradiation on single- and multiwalled carbon nanotubes

The effect of irradiation with swift heavy ions on the structure and properties of carbon nanotubes was investigated by Raman spectroscopy. It was found that disordering of the system occurred mainly at the surface. No ordering phenomena have been observed over a whole range of both fluences and electronic stopping powers studied. The disorder parameter (i.e., the ratio of the D and G band intensities (ID/IG)) increases non-linearly with the irradiation dose, showing a tendency to saturate at high fluences. The increase in the disorder parameter upon irradiation was proportional to the square root of the ion fluence. The radiation stability of the few-walled nanotubes was ca. 1.6 higher than that of the single-walled ones. The irradiation with both the Xe and Kr ions leads to essentially the same increase in the ID/IG ratio with respect to the deposited electronic energy density. In the case of the Ar ion irradiation, the observed increase in the ID/IG ratio is much lower, suggesting that the electronic stopping power threshold for defects creation in carbon nanotubes is lower than that for graphite.