Fabrication and characterization of suspended single-walled carbon nanotubes

Suspended single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) between SiO₂ pillars via a direct lithographic route using a simple mixture of catalyst precursor Co(III) acetylacetonate, Co(acac)₃] and conventional electron beam resist (ma-N2403) were fabricated. The catalytic electron beam resist (Cat-ER) layer plays dual roles as a catalyst and a resist layer for the growth and alignment of CNTs, respectively. The structure of the grown nanotube was characterized by Raman spectroscopy (633 nm laser excitation). Nanotubes grown from Cat-ER with Co(acac)₃ show the typical Raman spectra of SWCNTs which are characterized by the strong tangential bands near to 1590 cm⁻¹ and radial breathing modes (RBMs) in the low frequency region (<300 cm⁻¹). The calculated diameter of the probed nanotubes individually corresponds to the range 0.86-1.77 nm.