Parallel fabrication of electrode arrays on single-walled carbon nanotubes using dip-pen-nanolithography-patterned etch masks.

This article presents a novel application of using dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) to fabricate Au electrodes concurrently in a high-throughput fashion through an etch resist. We have fabricated 26 pairs of electrodes, where cleanly etched electrode architectures, along with a high degree of feature-size controllability and tip-to-tip uniformity, were observed. Moreover, electrode gaps in the sub-100-nm regime have been successfully fabricated. Conductivity measurements of multiple electrodes in the array were all comparable to that of bulk Au, confirming the reliability and the low-resistance property of the electrodes. Finally, as a demonstration of electrode functionality, SWNT devices were fabricated and the electrical properties of an SWNT device were measured. Hence, our experimental results validate DPN as an effective tool in generating high-quality electrodes in a parallel manner with mild, simple processing steps at a relatively low cost.