Exploiting the properties of carbon nanotubes for nanolithography

Carbon nanotube tips are explored in fabricating oxide nanostructures on silicon surfaces with an atomic force microscope, Nanotubes can write nanostructures at speeds up to 0.5 mm/s over large surface areas, and present a solution to the long-standing tip-wear problem. Experimental and theoretical work find that nanotube tips are impervious to high compressive and lateral forces and breakdown in high electric fields, A "cleaving" method is developed to reproducibly obtain dome-closed multi-walled nanotube tips with suitable length. Nanotube materials could become key elements for future miniaturization applications, (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.