Spatially selective removal of carbon nanotubes for fabricating nanotube circuits

Spatially selective removal of single-walled carbon nanotubes from a random nanotube network is demonstrated. The method simply involves local irradiation of a low-acceleration-voltage electron beam and annealing in air, and could be applied for the fabrication of a various kinds of nanotube networks. Raman spectroscopy measurements showed that the elimination of nanotubes during annealing is due to damage caused by the low-acceleration-voltage electron irradiation. Less defective nanotubes showed a higher tolerance against the irradiation damage. The higher tolerance was found to be maintained even after the irradiation damage was induced.