[en] An electrodeless microwave jet plasma source is considered, and its various applications in the technology of chemical vapor deposition of diamond films and dimension increasing of small diamond single crystals synthesized at high pressures and temperatures are discussed. The plasma jet is ignited in an atmospheric-pressure gas (argon) flow with hydrogen and methane additives. The operation of the microwave jet reactor is described, and the plasma characteristics measured using emission spectroscopy are presented. The brightly glowing atmospheric-pressure plasma jet is ignited and stably burns at a microwave power of ≤1 kW supplied from a microwave oven magnetron. The specific microwave power density absorbed by the compact plasma jet (≤10⁴ W/cm³) is comparable with that absorbed by a dc arc. The growth rate of the polycrystalline diamond layer amounts to 40 µm/h. The process of film deposition on the substrate can be controlled by scanning the substrate surface with the jet.

[en] Diamond films of different structures were deposited on quartz, WC-Co, and molybdenum substrates in a microwave plasma torch discharge in an argon-hydrogen-methane gas mixture in a sealed chamber at pressures close to atmospheric by using the chemical vapor deposition technique. Images of diamond polycrystal films and separate crystals, as well as results of Raman spectroscopy, are presented. The spectra of optical plasma radiation recorded during film deposition demonstrate the presence of intense H_α hydrogen and C₂ radical bands known as Swan bands.

[en] The thin 50 nm film of bundled arc-discharge single-wall carbon nanotubes was irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses with wavelengths 675, 1350 and 1745 nm corresponding to the absorption band of metallic nanotubes E_1_1"M, to the background absorption and to the absorption band of semiconducting nanotubes E_1_1"S, respectively. The aim was to induce a selective removal of nanotubes of specific type from the bundled material. Similar to conducted thermal heating experiments, the effect of laser irradiation results in suppression of all radial breathing modes in the Raman spectra, with preferential destruction of the metallic nanotubes with diameters less than 1.26 nm and of the semiconducting nanotubes with diameters 1.36 nm. However, the etching rate of different nanotubes depends on the wavelength of the laser irradiation. It is demonstrated that the relative content of nanotubes of different chiralities can be tuned by a resonant laser ablation of undesired nanotube fraction. The preferential etching of the resonant nanotubes has been shown for laser wavelengths 675 nm (E_1_1"M) and 1745 nm (E_1_1"S). (paper)

[en] The blister-based laser-induced forward transfer (BB-LIFT) of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), both raw and dispersed in carboxymethyl cellulose films, is demonstrated. Under optimized laser fluences, ejection of the SWCNTs from the donor substrate was driven by fast blistering of an underlying aluminum film that was not accompanied by its rupture. To transfer the ‘polymer/nanotube’ composite, the basic BB-LIFT technique was modified by adding preliminary cutting of the donor layer into square pixels due to total ablation of both the metal and composite in the areas between the pixels. Micro-Raman investigations have proved that SWCNTs are transferred without significant degradation in both cases. (paper)

[en] We report an all-fibre ultrashort pulse erbium-doped ring laser passively mode-locked by single-wall carbon nanotubes dispersed in carboxymethylcellulose-based polymer films. Owing to intracavity dispersion management and controlled absorption in the polymer films, the laser is capable of generating both femto- and picosecond pulses of various shapes in the spectral range 1.53 – 1.56 μm. We have demonstrated and investigated the generation of almost transform- limited, inversely modified solitons at a high normal cavity dispersion. (control of laser radiation parameters)

[en] We produced a nanocarbon colloid by electro-spark discharge as substrate seeding for microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (MPACVD) synthesis of micro- and nano-crystalline diamond films and solid free-standing microcrystalline diamond plates. The colloid was produced by a specially designed device via a pulse electro-spark discharge in ethanol. The nanocrystalline diamond films and polycrystalline plates that were grown were examined by optical, SEM and TEMmicroscopies and Raman spectroscopy. (paper)