Structure and Properties of Carbon Nanotube ArraysGrown on Templates

摘要

Carbon nanotubes are promising candidates for molecular devices due to their dimension, and uniquephysical properties. In order to use carbon nanotubes for electronic and mechanical applications, it is important tocontrollably fabricate and arrange ordered nanotube units in functional configurations for building integrated nanoscaleor microscale systems. We will present here some of our recent results in this approach on how to obtain control ofnanotube growth, with site selection and orientation, onto different template substrates such as Si/SiO2 and MgO.Templates of various topologies and aspect ratios will be created by both lithographic (photo, electron beam, andetching) and non-lithographic (self assembly, dispersion, electrochemical) techniques on planar substrates. We havetaken the approach of combining catalyst templating—controlling the horizontal and vertical feature sizes and shapesof substrate surface—and chemical vapor deposition to control nanotube nucleation site selectivity, orientationselectivity, alignment, length and junction formation. Our approach is toward creating 2D and 3D nanotubearchitectures for device applications.