Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991 by Iijima, there has been great interest in creating long, continuous nanotubes for applications where their properties coupled with extended lengths will enable new technology developments. For example, ultralong nanotubes can be spun into fibres that are more than an order of magnitude stronger than any current structural material, allowing revolutionary advances in lightweight, high-strength applications. Long metallic nanotubes will enable new types of micro-electromechanical systems such as micro-electric motors, and can also act as a nanoconducting cable for wiring micro-electronic devices. Here we report the synthesis of 4-cm-long individual single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) at a high growth rate of 11 microm s(-1) by catalytic chemical vapour deposition. Our results suggest the possibility of growing SWNTs continuously without any apparent length limitation.

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SrRuO3 thin films were deposited on (100) LaAlO3 using pulsed laser deposition. The films were (001) oriented normal to the substrate surface with a high degree of in-plane orientation with respect to the substrate’s major axes. An ion beam minimum yield of 2.5% was obtained for the films, indicating high crystallinity. The films exhibited metallic behavior with a room temperature resistivity of ∼200 mW cm. A kink in the resistivity, corresponding to a ferromagnetic phase transition, was observed at ∼160 K. It was found that SrRuO3 is structurally and chemically compatible with the YaB2Cu3O7−d (YBCO) superconductors. High quality YBCO films were obtained on SrRuO3 LaAlO3. Multilayers of YBCO/SrRuO3 were successfully fabricated.

Using pulsed laser deposition, YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) films ranging in thickness from 0.065 to 6.4 μm have been deposited on yttria-stabilized zirconia substrates with an intermediate layer of CeO2. The thinnest films have critical current densities of over 5 MA/cm2 at 75 K with zero applied field; as film thickness is increased, Jc decreases asymptotically to 1 MA/cm2. X-ray analysis of a 2.2-μm-thick film shows that the YBCO is predominantly c-axis oriented and textured in-plane, while a Rutherford backscattering spectrometry minimum channeling yield of ≊75% indicates that the film contains disordered material at this thickness.

We have prepared epitaxial (100)CeO2 thin films on LaAlO3, sapphire, and yttria-stabilized zirconia using pulsed laser deposition. It is demonstrated in this letter that the CeO2 films are chemically and structurally compatible to the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO). Epitaxial YBCO films on CeO2/LaAlO3 had a zero resistance temperature and critical current density in a zero field of 90 K and 5.9×106 A/cm2 at 75 K, respectively. Furthermore, epitaxial multilayers of CeO2/YBCO were prepared. This work demonstrated that CeO2 is an excellent buffer layer material for the high-temperature superconductors.