Highly-ordered carbon nanotube arrays for electronics applications

Highly-ordered arrays of parallel carbon nanotubes were grown by pyrolysis of acetylene on cobalt within a hexagonal close-packed nanochannel alumina template at 650 degrees C. The nanotubes are characterized by a narrow size distribution, large scale periodicity, and high densities. Using this method ordered nanotubes with diameters from 10 nm to several hundred nm and lengths up to 100 mu m can be produced. The high level of ordering and uniformity in these arrays is useful for applications in data storage, field emission displays and sensors, and offers the prospect of deriving computational functions from the collective behavior of symmetrically coupled nanotubes. The fabrication method used is compatible with standard lithographic processes and thus enables future integration of such periodic carbon nanotube arrays with silicon microelectronics. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)01929-4].