AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Thursday Sessions
       Session NS-ThA

Paper NS-ThA5
Synthesis of Suspended Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Tips of Silicon Nanostructures Fabricated by Plasma Etching

Thursday, November 16, 2006, 3:20 pm, Room 2016

Session: Nanoscale Material Processing
Presenter: C.H. Weng, National Tsing Hua University, ROC
Authors: C.H. Weng, National Tsing Hua University, ROC
H.C. Su, National Tsing Hua University, ROC
W.Y. Lee, National Tsing Hua University, ROC
C.H. Tsai, National Tsing Hua University, ROC
K.C. Leou, National Tsing Hua University, ROC
Correspondent: Click to Email
Suspended single-walled carbon nanotubes (su-SWNTs) have attracted a great deal of attention recently. This is because (1) the perturbation from substrates can be minimized to allow probing the natural properties of SWNTs; and (2) nano-devices using su-SWNTs exhibit enhanced performance. In this work, we present a method to synthesize su-SWNTs selectively suspended on tips of silicon based nanostructure (Si-ns) templates formed by anisotropic hydrogen plasma etching. Conventional thermal chemical vapor deposition technique was employed to synthesize the SWNTs. Nano-sized islands or particles as formed from multi-layered thin-films (Mo/Fe/Al) at high temperature are served as the catalytic nanomasks (CNMs) during plasma etching, where the remaining CNMs left at tips directly become the catalysts for SWNTs growth. As revealed by characterizations using scanning electron microscopy and resonance Raman spectra, su-SWNTs form networks interconnecting ns-Si templates. This technique allows us to assemble two different nanomaterials, i.e., ns-Si and su-SWNTs, together as a building block for future possible applications. (Work supported by the grant from the National Science Council of the ROC.).