Dip‐pen nanolithography: Small 22/2009

The cover picture shows a process used to fabricate carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). This process is enabled by patterning catalyst ink directly on silicon substrates with nanometer-scale precision using dip-pen nanolithography. A multipen writing method is employed to increase the patterning rate. The development of new molecular inks for the deposition of the precursor catalyst results in a high yield of isolated CNTs, ideal for subsequent device fabrication. The work demonstrates advantages of the new method for producing high-quality isolated CNTs in scalable array geometries. The image is a graphical representation of the patterning process. Arrays of dots are written with catalyst ink on the substrate at predefined locations marked by fiducial markers, which are alphabetical pairs of letters. After patterning, the CVD process facilitates synthesis of CNTs at the catalyst sites on the substrate. The arrows denote the final result-isolated CNTs grown from nanocatalyst clusters. For more information, please read the Communication “Controllable Patterning and CVD Growth of Isolated Carbon Nanotubes with Direct Parallel Writing of Catalyst Using Dip-Pen Nanolithography” by I. Kuljanishvili, V. Chandrasekhar, et al., beginning on page 2523.