Kabir M.S., Morjan R.E., Svensson K., Nerushev O.A., Lundgren P., Bengtsson S., Enokson P., Campbell E.E.B.
Chalmers University of Technology, SE
Keywords: carbon nanotubes, electron beam lithography, Ni catalyst, PECVD
The primary goal of this work is to achieve significant improvement of growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on different metal underlayers that can provide a platform for electronic companies to adopt the technology into their existing manufacturing pipeline. A prerequisite for exploring CNTs in an industrial process is to control mass production with high reproducibility. Recently we have performed a thorough investigation on the effect of thin intermediate a-Si layers for the growth of CNTs. One significant accomplishment achieved by a-Si insertion is the production of individual vertically aligned nanotubes with diameters shifted to <= 5 nm (Fig. 1) and (Fig. 2). Taking the technology one step further, we utilized electron beam lithography to fabricate dots of Ni catalysts for growing nanotubes. Primary results show that individual nanotubes grew from 50 nm dots. There seems to be a threshold at around 100 nm where catalyst islands tend to split into several islands resulting in the growth of more than one nanotube (Fig. 3). In the future, the developed technique can be used to fabricate e. g. NEMS devices, field emission devices, and interconnects for multilayer electronic circuits fabrications.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Technical Proceedings of the 2005 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 2
Published: May 8, 2005
Pages: 175 - 178
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Carbon Nano Structures & Devices
ISBN: 0-9767985-1-4