Production single-walled carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition from mechanism to patterned growth for electro devices

Abstract

The ability to controllably obtain ordered carbon nanotube architectures is important to fundamental characterizations and potential applications of electrical devices. Controlled synthesis involving chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been an effective strategy to order singlewalled nanotubes (SWNTs) on patterned catalyst. In this paper, Single-walled carbon nanotubes are synthesized by chemical vapor deposition of methane at controlled locations on a silicon substrate. This synthetic approach has allowed individual SWNT wires to be grown from controlled surface sites by catalyst patterning and has led to interconnecting SWNT electrical devices. The combined synthesis and microfabrication technique presented here allows a large number of ohmically contacted nanotube devices with controllable length to be placed on a single substrate.