Fabrication of ultralong perovskite structure nanotubes

Abstract

Fabrication of high quality nanotubes with thin walls, long length, and uniform diameter is challenging, especially in complex structure oxides, such as perovskites. In this paper, we elucidate a facile method for the preparation of perovskite manganite nanotubes by a sacrificial template assisted pulsed laser deposition technique. Morphological analysis reveals a typical hollow tubular nanostructure of the nanotubes with lengths up to tens of micrometers and the average diameter of 160 nm. The nanotubes are composed of perovskite crystallites with a granular size of 5–10 nm, and show superparamagnetism behavior. The kinetic energy of the plume is crucial for the nanotube formation, which could be tuned by the laser energy density, the pressure of deposition and the target–substrate distance. This sacrificial template method illustrated here does not only propose a universal technique for high quality inorganic nanotube material fabrication, but also provides a promising route to new one-dimensional materials and devices.