Apparatus and Process for Controlled Nanomanufacturing Using Catalyst Retaining Structures

Abstract

An apparatus and method for the controlled fabrication of nanostructures using catalyst retaining structures is disclosed. The apparatus includes one or more modified force microscopes having a nanotube attached to the tip portion of the microscopes. An electric current is passed from the nanotube to a catalyst layer of a substrate, thereby causing a localized chemical reaction to occur in a resist layer adjacent the catalyst layer. The region of the resist layer where the chemical reaction occurred is etched, thereby exposing a catalyst particle or particles in the catalyst layer surrounded by a wall of unetched resist material. Subsequent chemical vapor deposition causes growth of a nanostructure to occur upward through the wall of unetched resist material having controlled characteristics of height and diameter and, for parallel systems, number density.