Carbon nanotube-sharp tips and carbon nanotube-soldering irons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a nano-electron beam technique to create atomically sharp tips and nano-soldering irons from carbon nanotubes, enabling precise nanostructure interconnections for advanced nanotechnology applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electron beam fabrication method for creating nano-soldering irons and sharp tips from carbon nanotubes, facilitating complex nanoscale interconnections.

Findings

Successfully fabricated atomically sharp iron tips.

Created a nano-soldering iron capable of joining nanotube segments.

Demonstrated potential for connecting dissimilar nanostructures.

Abstract

We report on the nano-electron beam assisted fabrication of atomically sharp iron-based tips and on the creation of a nano-soldering iron for nano-interconnects using Fe-filled multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). High energy electron beam machining has been proven a powerful tool to modify desired nanostructures for technological applications and to form molecular junctions and interconnections between carbon nanotubes. Recent studies showed the high degree of complexity in the creation of direct interconnections between multiwalled and CNTs having dissimilar diameters. Our technique allows for carving a MWCNT into a nanosoldering iron that was demonstrated capable of joining two separated halves of a tube. This approach could easily be extended to the interconnection of two largely dissimilar CNTs, between a CNT and a nanowire or between two nanowires.