Manipulation of single-walled carbon nanotubes with a tweezers tip

We demonstrate that a tweezers tip can be directly used to manipulate single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films and individual SWCNTs (or bundles). Specifically, we can align, bend, and even cut SWCNTs on the substrates where they are grown. With this manipulation technique, we are able to control the position, direction, and length of SWCNTs and fabricate complex patterns. Because of the large size of the tweezers tip, long SWCNTs (hundreds of micrometers in length) are found to be critical for the realization of such manipulations. This finding would contribute to the property studies on nanotubes and the fabrication of nanodevices.