Controlled growth of carbon nanotubes on microstructured surfaces

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are known to enhance the scanning performance of AFM tips when mounted on AFM tips. There are different ways to synthesize CNTs, i.e. arc-discharge and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). CNTs have been directly grown on atomic force microscopy (AFM) tips by CVD. CNTs produced by arc-discharge method have been mechanically attached onto AFM tips to compare the performance of different types of CNTs. AFM images have been gathered with these CNT AFM tips. Present results show that arc-discharge CNT AFM tips have better scanning performances than the Si AFM tips.