| The goal of this project is to explore new device fabrication and carbon nanotube (CNT) synthesis methods that can reduce the noise, resistance, and current leakage of CNT devices by improving their overall cleanliness. During standard device fabrication, CNTs are grown from monodisperse Fe-Mo catalyst particles that are uniformly distributed across a whole 4" wafer. These catalysts, in fact, increase the noise, resistance, and current leakage observed in devices fabricated from randomly grown CNTs. Using a combination of device fabrication and CNT synthesis techniques, CNTs with lengths longer than 50 microns were grown from patterned Fe-Mo alloy catalyst on aluminium oxide islands onto bare silicon oxide. By localizing the catalyst and growing long CNTs away from the catalyst, the overall quality and yield of CNT devices do improve when electrodes are deposited. Improving the quality and yield of CNT devices could lead to further breakthroughs in CNT based electronics. |
