Ultrahigh vacuum process for the deposition of nanotubes and nanowires

A method of growing an elongate nanoelement from a growth surface comprising:

• a) cleaning a growth surface on a base element;
• b) providing an ultrahigh vacuum reaction environment over the cleaned growth surface;
• c) generating a reactive gas of an atomic material to be used in forming the nanoelement;
• d) projecting a stream of the reactive gas at the growth surface within the reactive environment while maintaining a vacuum of at most 1×10˜4 Pascal, wherein the reactive gas comprises a cracked hydrocarbon species;
• e) at least 95% of the reactive gas generated impacting the growth surface without undergoing a chemical reaction;
• f) growing the elongate nanoelement from the growth surface within the environment while maintaining the pressure of step d);
• g) after a desired length of nanoelement is attained within the environment, stopping direction of reactive gas into the environment;
• and
• h) returning the environment to an ultrahigh vacuum condition of less than 10−7 Torr.

A method of growing an elongate nanoelement from a growth surface comprising:

• a) cleaning a growth surface on a base element;
• b) providing an ultrahigh vacuum reaction environment of less than 10−7 Torr over the cleaned growth surface;
• c) generating a reactive gas of an atomic material to be used in forming the nanoelement;
• d) projecting a stream of the reactive gas at the growth surface within the reactive environment while maintaining a vacuum of 10−5 Torr, wherein the reactive gas comprises a cracked hydrocarbon species;
• e) growing the elongate nanoelement from the growth surface within the environment while maintaining the pressure of step c);
• f) after a length of nanoelement is attained within the environment, stopping direction of reactive gas into the environment;
• and
• g) returning the environment to an ultrahigh vacuum condition of less than 10−7 Torr.