Growth and deterministic assembly of single stranded carbon nanotube

Abstract

The ability to control the shape, position, alignment, length and assembly of carbon nanotubes over large areas has become an essential but very difficult goal in the field of nanotechnology. Current assembly efforts for nanostructures (such as carbon nanotubes) are mostly based on the concept of planting seeds and growing them into nanostructures, which cannot integrate nanostructures to micro/macro structures deterministically in a long-range order. So to overcome the problem of assembly at nanoscale, this thesis investigates a new way of growth and assembly of nanostructures (carbon nanotube). This process is termed as nanopelleting, which refers to control length, alignment, handling and transportation of a nanostructure (carbon nanotube). Nanopelleting is a new concept to embed nanostructures into assemblable micro-blocks, and then have them individually transplanted, located and assembled. This method includes vertical growth of single strand carbon nanotubes, pellet casting, planarization, pellet separation, transplanting and bonding. A new CNT PECVD machine has been designed and built to custom fit to our specifications for vertically grown single strand CNTs.

(cont.) We have built a dc plasma reactor because it is simple to build and the growth mechanism of CNTs is optimal. By embedding a single strand CNT in a cylindrical SU-8 pellet, a high aspect ratio pellet (nanocandle) is fabricated. The sizes of the pellets are 75-100um diameters, so they can be easily handled and transported to the required location. As an application of this nanopellet, we report the concept of an in-plane AFM probe specifically designed for the needs of imaging biological samples with its low stiffness and high-aspect-ratio tip. The designed and fabricated pellet is also used as a nanotemplate to transduct thermal nano-dots in a desired pattern on a large surface area.