Use of focused ion beam milling for patterned growth of carbon nanotubes

Focused ion beam milling was used to create trenches on Si wafer surface as the template and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) only nucleated and grew inside the trenches under a controlled pyrolysis process of iron phthalocyanine at 1000 °C. Using this new template technique, CNTs in various patterns were formed on Si surface without pre-deposition of metal catalysts. The selective growth in the trenches is due to special morphology, surface crystalline structure and capillarity effect. © 2008 Materials Research Society.