A Dielectrophoretic Method for High Yield Deposition of Suspended, Individual Carbon Nanotubes with Four-Point Electrode Contact

Abstract

We have investigated new methods to manufacture four-point contacted suspended, individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes by dielectrophoresis. The necessity of four-point contacted carbon nanotubes is underpinned by the need for more exact measurements of carbon nanotube properties and more complex carbon nanotube based devices. In the experimental study herein, we first evaluated the most important dielectrophoretic parameters of two-point electrode structures. The knowledge gained from this step was applied to the deposition of suspended, individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes over two different four-point electrode designs, a 2-D chip design and a novel 3-D chip design. Our results show that the novel approach using three dimensions for the chip design is superior to the current state of the art 2-D designs. We report a highly improved deposition yield of carbon nanotubes over 3-D chips, which will facilitate the reliable design and manufacturing of future carbon nanotube-integrated devices.