Local growth of aligned carbon nanotubes at surface sites irradiated by pulsed laser

The utilization of the unique properties of nanostructures often requires their arrangement in mesoscopic patterns, e.g., to facilitate the connection to microelectrodes. Such arrangements can be achieved by local growth of nanostructures. The stimulation of the localized growth of carbon nanotubes (CNT) has been achieved by excimer laser irradiation of iron(III)nitride-coated silicon substrates at a wavelength of 248 nm. After the growth using a thermal CVD process, vertical aligned CNT bundles were found within the laser-irradiated areas. Pulsed UV-laser irradiation causes the transformation of the nitride film into nanoparticles at the substrate surface as AFM measurements show. Surface modification by direct writing techniques allows the growth of arbitrary shaped CNT-forest patterns. Despite the optimization of the processing parameters, an unequal growth of CNT has been observed at the regions of pulse overlap at direct writing. The dissimilar particle properties at the overlap regions are the reason for the different CNT heights. These differences in the catalytic particles properties are caused by the lower laser fluence at the mask edges and the interaction of the laser plasma plume with the pristine nitride film.