Nanomechanical structures with an integrated carbon nanotube

Abstract

In this paper, we report the fabrication method of a freestanding carbon nanotube (CNT) bridged between opposed silicon electrodes with a narrow gap (0.5/spl sim/5 /spl mu/m), which was fabricated by a silicon micromachining technique. After the metallization of nickel (Ni) or iron (Fe) as a catalyst for CNT growth, the CNT was grown between these electrodes with an application of the voltage of 30V during the growth by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HF-CVD) using acetylene diluted by hydrogen, as a source gas. The CNT was grown from the negative electrode to another one. From the measurement of current-voltage (I-V) characteristics the contact between the CNT and the silicon electrode shows ohmic behavior and the resistivity of the CNT was estimated to be about 4/spl times/10/sup -5/ /spl Omega//spl middot/cm. This nanofabrication technique will be applicable to the nanomechanical elements integrated an individual CNT.