Local Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes in Silicon Microsystems: The Effect of Temperature Distribution on Growth Structure

Local synthesis and direct integration of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into microsystems is a promising method for producing CNT-based devices in a single step, low-cost, and wafer-level, CMOS/MEMS-compatible process. In this report, the structure of the locally grown CNTs are studied by transmission imaging in scanning electron microscopy—S(T)EM. The characterization is performed directly on the microsystem, without any post-synthesis processing required. The results show an effect of temperature on the structure of CNTs: high temperature favors thin and regular structures, whereas low temperature favors “bamboo-like" structures.