Vertical Carbon Nanotube Devices With Nanoscale Lengths Controlled Without Lithography

Authors

Aaron D. Franklin, Purdue University - Main CampusFollow
Robert A. Sayer, Purdue University - Main CampusFollow
Timothy D. Sands, Purdue University - Main CampusFollow
David B. Janes, Purdue University - Main CampusFollow
Timothy S. Fisher, Purdue University - Main CampusFollow

Comments

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NANOTECHNOLOGY, VOL. 8, NO. 4, JULY 2009. © 2009 IEEE. doi:10.1109/TNANO.2009.2012399

Abstract

Vertical single-walled carbon nanotubes (vSWCNTs) are synthesized within highly ordered porous anodic alumina (PAA) templates supported on Si substrates. A process for obtaining thin-film PAA with long-range ordered nanopores is presented in this paper. Each nanopore contains at most one v-SWCNT that is supported by a dielectric and addressed by electrochemically formed Pd nanowire source contacts and evaporated Pd drain contacts. Characteristics of these completely vertical, two-terminal nanotube devices are presented. Control of the v-SWCNT length is demonstrated using a straightforward etching process with lengths of less than 100 nm achieved without the need for complex/expensive lithography. This effective nanoscale length control of highly ordered v-SWCNTs provides a practical basis for the realization of CNT-based nanoelectronics.

Keywords

Field-Effect Transistors, High-Performance Electronics, Aligned Arrays, Fabrication, Templates, Contacts, FETS, Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), length scaling, nanotechnology, porous anodic alumina (PAA), vertical devices

Date of this Version

7-2009