Effect of solution conductivity and electrode shape on the deposition of carbon nanotubes from solution using dielectrophoresis.

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a popular technique for fabricating carbon nanotube (CNT) devices. The electric current passing through the solution during DEP creates a temperature gradient, which results in electrothermal fluid flow because of the presence of the electric field. CNT solutions prepared with various methods can have different conductivities and the motion of the solution because of the electrothermal phenomenon can affect the DEP deposition differently in each case. We investigated the effect of this movement in solutions with various levels of conductivity through experiments as well as numerical modeling. Our results show that electrothermal motion in the solution can alter the deposition pattern of the nanotubes drastically for high conductivity solutions, while DEP remains the dominant force when a low conductivity (surfactant-free) solution is used. The extent of effectiveness of each force is discussed in the various cases and the fluid movement model is investigated using two- and three-dimensional finite element simulations.

Unusual secondary electron emission behavior in carbon nanotube forests.

Electron yield was measured from patterned carbon nanotube forests for a wide range of primary beam energies (400-20,000 eV). It was observed that secondary and backscattered electron emission behaviors in these forests are quite different than in bulk materials. This seems to be primarily because of the increased range of electrons due to the porous nature of the forests and dependent on their structural parameters, namely nanotube length, diameter and inter-nanotube spacing. In addition to providing insight into the electron microscopy of nanotubes, these results have interesting implications on designing novel secondary electron emitters based on the structural degrees of freedom of nanomaterials.

Parameters and mechanisms governing image contrast in scanning electron microscopy of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Image formation of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is peculiarly sensitive to primary electron landing energy, imaging history, sample/substrate geometry, electrical conductivity, sample contamination, and substrate charging. This sensitivity is probably due to the extremely small interaction volume of the SWNTs' monolayered, nanoscale structures with the electron beam. Traditional electron beam/bulk specimen interaction models appear unable to explain the contrast behavior when directly applied to SWNTs. We present one systematic case study of SWNT SEM imaging with special attention to the above parameters and propose some physical explanations for the effect of each. We also demonstrate that it is possible to employ voltage biasing to counteract this extrinsic behavior, gain better control of the image contrast, and facilitate the interpretation of SWNT images in the SEM.

Ab initio modeling of the interaction of electron beams and single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes are readily observable in a scanning electron microscope, which traditional models fail to explain. We present an ab initio model to explain how the electron beam can interact with these structures despite the very small, nanoscale, interaction volume. In particular, we show how the electron beam can generate very strong secondary electron emission from the tip of a nanotube under external electric field. The approach may also be used in modeling the interaction of charged particles with nanostructures in other applications such as electron detection.