In this article, the diameter distributions of carbon nanotube were theoretically analyzed. The carbon nanotubes were grown by microwave plasma enhanced CVD. For studying the diameter distributions of the carbon nanotubes, the thermodynamic transformation of catalytic films was theoretically considered. Therefore, a process of the formation of stable catalytic islands was supposed, in which the initial continuous catalytic films were first transformed into many critical nuclei and then became stable islands through diffusion of the critical particles, where carbon nanotubes just grew up. The island distribution expression can be derived, and under certain conditions, carbon nanotubes have similar distributions. The nanotubes grown on different catalyst films were analyzed, which showed that the nanotubes over thick films have broad diameter distributions and large mean diameters, while that over thin films have narrow diameter ranges and small diameters on average. The theoretical results were in good agreement with the experimental data.

Nucleation and growth of diamond films on aluminum nitride (ALN) coatings were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and scratch test. ALN films were grown in a magnetron sputtering deposition. The substrates were Si(111) and tungsten carbide (WC). Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond films were deposited on ALN films by hot filament CVD. The nucleation density of diamond on ALN films was found to be approximately 10 5cm 2, whereas over 10 10cm2 after negative bias pre-treatment for 35min was 320V, and 250mA. The experimental studies have shown that the stresses were greatly minimized between diamond overlay and ALN films as compared with WC substrate. The results obtained have also confirmed that the ALN, as buffer layers, can notably enhance the adhesion force of diamond films on the WC.

A rare-earth Pr-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) is obtained in the shape of rod up to 5mm in diameter by die cast. Unlike other rare-earth-based BMGs, it exhibits a distinct glass transition, the low glass transition temperature (Tg5409 K), a large and stable supercooled liquid region, and paramagnetic property. The glass transition as well as its kinetic nature and the fragility parameters of the BMG have been studied. The BMG offers an ideal model to investigate the nature of glass transition as well as the relaxation and nucleation with a large experimentally accessible time and temperature window at low temperatures.

Diamond nucleation by biased hot filament chemical vapor deposition was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. It was found that a number of microdefects were produced on a substrate surface owing to energetic ion bombardment under negative substrate bias, which increased with increasing negative bias. The nucleation density was enhanced with an increase of negative bias. During diamond nucleation, a purple glow was observed when the negative bias was increased to a critical value. At the onset of glow discharge, the process of diamond nucleation on a silicon surface by biased hot filament chemical vapor deposition was theoretically studied by analysis of the experimental results of diamond nucleation. The relationship among the number of active ions, the microdefects, and nucleation density with negative bias was given by reasonable analytic formulas. The effect of negative bias on ion diffusion on the substrate surface was theoretically researched and deduced. The influence of negative bias on the bond strength of diamond nuclei on the substrate was analyzed theoretically. The adhesion force between diamond nuclei and the substrate surface was measured by means of the scratch surface method, which was in accord with theoretical consideration. The results indicated that the theoretical calculation was in agreement with experimental results.

Magnetoresistive effects were studied in p-type heteroepitaxial diamond films with a strip or Corbino disk structure in a magnetic field ranging from 0 to 5 T. The films were grown by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition and boron doped by cold ion implantation and rapid thermal annealing. The experimental results show that the magnetoresistance (MGR) of p-type heteroepitaxial diamond films strongly depends on the geometric form of the samples and the magnetic field. Diamond films are assumed to be an isotropic isothermal solid in which conduction is by holes from light, heavy and split-off bands. Based on the Fuchs and Sondheimer thin-film theory, considering spherical energy surfaces and mixed scattering by lattice vibrations and ionized impurities and surface, a theoretical description of the magnetoresistive effect in diamond films is presented by solving the Boltzmann transport equation in the relaxation time approximation. A relationship between the MGR and the thickness of films, magnetic field, and mobility is shown.