Abstract: A method of producing forests of fibrous solid carbon includes providing a catalyst material over a substrate, forming the catalyst material into catalyst nanoparticles, and reacting carbon monoxide with hydrogen in the presence of the catalyst nanoparticles to form forests of fibrous solid carbon attached to the catalyst nanoparticles. A composition of matter includes an inert material disposed upon a substrate, a plurality of nanoparticles of catalyst material upon the inert material, and a plurality of carbon nanotubes upon the nanoparticles. Some methods of producing a forest of carbon nanotubes include preparing a catalyst surface by depositing an inert material onto stainless steel, and depositing iron onto the inert material. The catalyst surface is placed into a furnace chamber, and the furnace chamber is heated.

Abstract: Recording data in a permanent solid state memory device forms voids in a patterned data layer between a first wire array and a second wire array. Wires of the first wire array extend transversely to wires in the second wire array thus creating a crossbar array. The conductive material in the data layer is made of a carbon allotrope such that when current is passed through the carbon allotrope, the carbon is quickly oxidized (burned) leaving a complete gap (void) where the conductive material (i.e., fuse) once was. One of the advantages of this method is that the fuse material is fully oxidized, such that there is no material left over from which dendrites can grow. A horizontal configuration in which the data layer is a bowtie structure is also disclosed.