Microprocess for fabricating carbon-nanotube probes of a scanning probe microscope

We have developed microprocesses to make carbon-nanotube probes for a scanning probe microscope. The processes contain electric-field induced transportation, welding and fixation by electron-beam carbon deposition and are performed in a scanning electron microscope equipped with two individual manipulable stages. Using the nanotube probes produced, a fine structure of helical and twinned deoxyribonucleic acid and an abrupt height transition with high fidelity in a 4.7 GB digital versatile disk are imaged with tapping-mode atomic force microscopy in air.

[1]  H. Dai,et al.  Nanotubes as nanoprobes in scanning probe microscopy , 1996, Nature.

[2]  Seiji Akita,et al.  RAPID COMMUNICATION: Orientation and purification of carbon nanotubes using ac electrophoresis , 1998 .

[3]  Seiji Akita,et al.  Carbon-nanotube tips for scanning probe microscopy: Preparation by a controlled process and observation of deoxyribonucleic acid , 1999 .

[4]  Peter T. Lansbury,et al.  Carbon Nanotube Tips: High-Resolution Probes for Imaging Biological Systems , 1998 .

[5]  S. Iijima.  Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon , 1991, Nature.

[6]  H. Dai,et al.  Carbon nanotube tipped atomic force microscopy for measurement of <100 nm etch morphology on semiconductors , 1998 .

[7]  P. Ajayan,et al.  Large-scale synthesis of carbon nanotubes , 1992, Nature.

[8]  S. Akita,et al.  Carbon nanotube tips for a scanning probe microscope: their fabrication and properties , 1999 .

[9]  T. Arie,et al.  Carbon-nanotube probe equipped magnetic force microscope , 2000 .

[10]  Hongjie Dai,et al.  Exploiting the properties of carbon nanotubes for nanolithography , 1998 .

[11]  T. Ebbesen,et al.  Exceptionally high Young's modulus observed for individual carbon nanotubes , 1996, Nature.

[12]  Philip Kim,et al.  Single-walled carbon nanotube probes for high-resolution nanostructure imaging , 1998 .

[13]  Charles M. Lieber,et al.  Covalently functionalized nanotubes as nanometre- sized probes in chemistry and biology , 1998, Nature.

[14]  Zhong Lin Wang,et al.  Carbon nanotube quantum resistors , 1998, Science.