In this study, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) were grown from filler-added LB films with accumulated AlFe2O4 nanoparticles and palmitic acid (C16) as the filler molecule after different hydrogen reduction temperatures of 500°C and 750°C, and the grown VA-CNTs were compared and evaluated. As a result, VA-CNTs were approximately doubled in length after 500°C hydrogen reduction compared to 750°C hydrogen reduction when AlFe2O4 NPs were used. On the other hand, when the catalyst area ratio was decreased by using palmitic acid, i.e., the distance between CNTs was increased, VA-CNTs rapidly shortened after 500°C hydrogen reduction, and VA-CNTs were no longer obtained even in the range where VA-CNTs were obtained in 750°C hydrogen reduction. The inner and outer diameters of VA-CNTs decreased with decreasing catalyst area ratio at 750°C hydrogen reduction and tended to increase at 500°C hydrogen reduction. The morphology of the catalyst nanoparticles after CVD was observed to change significantly depending on the hydrogen reduction temperature and catalyst area ratio. These observations indicate that the state of the catalyst nanoparticles immediately before the CNT growth process greatly affects the physical properties of the CNTs.

A gold coated carbon nanotubes composite was used as a contact material in Micro-Electrical-Mechanical-System (MEMS) switches. The switching contact was tested under typical conditions of MEMS relay applications: load voltage of 4 V, contact force of 1 mN, and load current varied between 20-200 mA. This paper focuses on the wear process over switching lifetime, and the dependence of the wear area on the current is discussed. It was shown that the contact was going to fail when the wear area approached the whole contact area, at which point the contact resistance increased sharply to three times the nominal resistance.

A novel fabrication approach for the amperometric biosensor composed of carbon nanotubes (CNT), a plasma-polymerized film (PPF), hexamineruthenium(III)chloride (RU), and enzyme glucose oxidase (GOD) is reported. The configuration of the electrochemical electrode is multilayer films which contain sputtered gold, lower acetonitrile PPF, CNT, RU, GOD, and upper acetonitrile PPF, sequentially. First, PPF deposited on Au acts as a permselective membrane and as a scaffold for CNT layer formation. Second, PPF directly deposited on GOD acts as a matrix for enzyme immobilization. To facilitate the electrochemical communication between the CNT layer and GOD, CNT was treated with nitrogen plasma. The electron transfer mediator RU play a role as the mediator, in which the electron caused by enzymatic reaction transports to the electrode. The synergy between the electron transfer mediator and CNT provides benefits in terms of lowering the operational potential and enhancing the sensitivity (current). The optimized glucose biosensor revealed a sensitivity of 3.4µA mM-1 cm-2 at +0.4V vs. Ag/AgCl, linear dynamic range of 2.5-19mM, and a response time of 6s.

Multi-Walled CNT (MWCNT) are synthesized on a silicon wafer and sputter coated with a gold film. The planar surfaces are mounted on the tip of a piezo-electric actuator and mated with a gold coated hemispherical surface to form an electrical contact. These switching contacts are tested under conditions typical of MEMS relay applications; 4V, with a static contact force of 1mN, at a low current between 20-50mA. The failure of the switch is identified by the evolution of contact resistance which is monitored throughout the switching cycles. The results show that the contact resistance can be stable for up to 120 million switching cycles, which are 106 orders of higher than state-of-the-art pure gold contact. Bouncing behavior was also observed in each switching cycle. The failing mechanism was also studied in relation to the contact surface changes. It was observed that the contact surfaces undergo a transfer process over the switching life time, ultimately leading to switching failure the number of bounces is also related to the fine transfer failure mechanism.

This paper presents symmetric and full swing designs of multiplier and full adder cells, based on weighted inputs for nanotechnology. Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistors (CNTFETs) are used to implement the circuits. Proposed designs are simulated using the HSPICE simulation tool and they are compared with their counterparts in terms of delay, power consumption and power-delay product. Significant improvements have been achieved at different voltage levels and different frequencies, load capacitors and temperatures have also been tested. Finally, process variation issue has been analyzed and the results have been reported.

A novel fabrication approach for electrochemical sensing of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) using neutral red (NR) functinalized carbon nanotube/plasma-polymerized film composite electrode is reported. The configuration of sensing electrode was NR-functionalized CNTs sandwiched between two acetonitrile PPFs on sputtered gold thin film. The NR as an electron transfer mediator shuttles the electron from the CNT to gold electrode. Due to the synergistic effect between NR and CNT, the resulting electrode showed the lower detection potential and the larger sensitivity (current) than that of NR or CNT alone. The sensor revealed a sensitivity of 29 µA mM-1 cm-2 at +0.15 V vs. Ag/AgCl, linear dynamic range of 0.08–4.2 mM, a detection limit of 18 µM at S/N=3, and a response time of 7 s.

We propose a novel technique to grow the single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with specific chirality at the desired position using free electron laser (FEL) irradiation during growth and surface treatment. As a result, only the semiconducting SWNTs grew at the area between triangle electrodes, where the ozone treatment was done to be hydrophilic when an alcohol chemical vapor deposition (ACCVD) process was carried out with the 800 nm FEL irradiation. Although the number of possible chiral index is 22 in the SWNTs grown without the FEL irradiation, the number is much reduced to be 8 by the FEL.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have generated great interest within the many areas of nanotechnology due to their superior and outstanding physical properties. However effective dispersion in many solvents has imposed limitations upon the use of CNTs in a number of novel applications. Functionalization presents a solution for CNTs to be more soluble which make them integrate well into any organic, inorganic or biological systems. CNTs can be easily functionalized using cyclodextrin (CD) treatment. The CD modification of carbon nanotubes is both simple and effective. It requires no prolonged heating, filtration and washing which can severely damage the small diameter nanotubes. The formation of surface functional groups and changes of nanotubes structures of functionalized carbon nanotubes (f-CNTs) were monitored by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), respectively. From the TGA results, the amount of weight loss of the f-CNTs in varying ratios indicated the amount of CD that was functionalized. It was also noted that the FTIR spectra showed the presence of functional groups associated with CD in the f-CNTs. As a result, the cyclodextrin groups were found to be possibly adsorbed at the surface of the nanotubes walls. The f-CNTs showed substantial solubility in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) which helps in a better distribution of the CNTs in the mixed matrix membrane (MMM) prepared. Hence, the influence of the f-CNTs in the polymer matrix will give rise to enhanced physical properties of the MMM suitable for applications in gas separations.

The synthesis of single- and double-wall carbon nanotubes by gas flow-modified, catalyst-supported chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) is reported. We have investigated the gas flow condition dependence on the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by placing blocks in the CCVD reactor. Carbon nanotubes having large diameters are preferentially grown under turbulent flow conditions. This indicates that the diameter distribution of CNTs can be controlled by modification of the gas flow condition in the CCVD.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) offer unique properties such as highest current density exceeding 109 A/cm2, ultra-high thermal conductivity as high as that of diamond, ballistic transport along the tube and extremely high mechanical strength with high aspect ratio of more than 1000. Because of these remarkable properties, they have been expected for use as future wiring materials to solve several problems, for examples, stress and electro-migration, heat removal and fabrication of a small-sized via in future LSIs. In this paper, we demonstrate present status of CNT material technologies and the potential of metallic CNT vias. In particular, we report our original catalytic nano-particle technique for controlling the diameter and density of CNTs. We have succeeded in forming a 40-nm via with the CNT density of 91011/cm2, which is the highest density ever reported. The low temperature CVD growth and the electrical properties of CNT vias are also discussed.

This paper focuses on the processing of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) alignment as molecular bridge. A magnitude of an alternative voltage of about 1 V with 1 MHz was applied between two electrodes containing CNTs in suspension. The CNT bundles were well stretched along the field line distribution. Two kinds of directions could be distinguished around the electrode: the parallel and the Gaussian. On the other hand, different lengths of CNT bundles were aligned from one electrode side to the other. Those which were more than 1 µm reached both sides of electrodes while the short one did not but followed the Gaussian distribution of electric field. The short CNTs represent an increasing interest of study as far as their flexibility, mechanical and electrical properties are concerned. That's basically because one of their sides ended on the substrate. Among the advantages of the alignment of the CNT is to control the current flux and the thermal conductivity in composite resins or as new materials for the development of novel single-molecular transistors.

Quantum dots are one of the possible building blocks for the quantum computing device. We discuss on use of carbon nanotubes for fabrication of the quantum dot, in terms of their unique physical properties and energy scales which might be advantageous for functionalities of the quantum computing device. Simple schemes of a charge qubit and a spin qubit are described, followed by the current status of the fabrication and transport measurements of the nanotube quantum dot. Based on the basic properties and the estimated energy scales of the dot, we discuss advantages and problems of the carbon nanotube for the quantum computing device. The nanotube quantum dot may have a great advantage for the spin qubit.

The carbon nanotube field-effect transistors show the hysteresis characteristic in their electrical characteristics owing to the amorphous carbon around the carbon nanotube. It is shown here the reduction of the hysteresis characteristic by the refining process applied repeatedly to the carbon nanotube. Moreover, after the refining processes, the transconductance of carbon nanotube field-effect transistor becomes 2.0 µS the ten times larger than before the refining process. Almost all carbon nanotubes without the refining processes, grown by thermal chemical vapor deposition, show the p type semiconductor characteristics. After the refining processes on the other hand, almost all carbon nanotube show the ambipolar type semiconductor characteristics.

Field emission display (FED) is evolving as a promising technique of flat panel displays in the future. In this paper, various carbon based nanostructures are acted as cathode materials for field emission devices. Dendrite-like diamond-like carbon emitters, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanotips are synthesized by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. Many factors affect the performance of field emitters, such as the shape, work function and aspect ratio of emission materials. Modified process of carbon based nano-materials for enhancing field emission efficiency are included intrinsic and extrinsic process. These reformations contain the p-type and n-type doping, carburization and new ultra well-aligned carbon nano-materials. It is found that carbon nano-materials grown on micropatterned diode show higher efficiency of FED. In addition, to achieve a low- turn-on field, the novel scheme involving a new fabrication process of gated structure metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) diode by IC technology is also presented.

Electron field emission from diamond, diamond-like carbon, carbon nanotubes and nano-structured carbon is compared. It is found that in all practical cases, emission occurs from regions of positive electron affinity with an emission barrier of 5eV, the work function, and with a large field enhancement. The field enhancement in nanotubes arises from their geometry. In diamond, the field enhancement occurs by depletion of grain boundary states. In diamond-like carbon we propose that it occurs by the presence of sp2-rich channels formed by the soft conditioning process.

We use the Monte Carlo method to simulate electron transport in a zig-zag single-walled carbon nanotube with a wrapping index of n=10. Results show large low-field mobility, negative differential mobility, and large peaks in the drift velocity reaching 3.5107 cm/s.

A brief review is given on a crossover in transport between quantum and classical regimes due to the presence of inelastic scattering destroying the phase coherence. In the integer quantum Hall effect, the quantum regime corresponds to the edge-current picture and the classical to the bulk Hall current picture. The crossover between two regimes occurs through inelastic scattering. In a metallic carbon nanotube, there is a perfectly transmitting channel independent of energy for conventional scatterers having potential range larger than the lattice constant, making the nanotube a perfect conductor. When several bands coexist at the Fermi level, such a perfect channel is destroyed by inelastic scattering.