We describe a microfabricated Fabry-Pérot interferometer with nanochannels of various heights between 6 and 20 nm embedded in its cavity. By multiple beam interferometry, the device enables the study of liquid behavior in the nanochannels without using fluorescent substances. During filling studies of ethanol and water, an intriguing filling mode for partially wetting water was observed, tentatively attributed to the entrapment of a large amount of gas inside the channels.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have developed into a standard material used as a building block for nanotechnological developments. Based on the unique properties that make CNTs useful for many different applications in nanotechnology, optics, electronics, and material science, there has been a rapid development of this research area and many different applications have emerged in the past few years. Frequently, the alignment and immobilization of CNTs play an important role for many applications and different strategies, in particular post-synthesis approaches, can be applied. Recent developments of different techniques to immobilize and align carbon nanotubes are discussed and classified into three main categories: chemical immobilization and alignment, physical immobilization and alignment, and the use of external fields for these purposes. Many of the techniques involve multiple steps and may also cross these rather crudely defined boundaries. As such, the techniques are classified according to their most important or unique step.

A fully controllable process for the fabrication of carbon nanotube assemblies is presented on the basis of a sequential electrochemical oxidation lithography process. This approach utilizes the local chemical conversion of a n-octadecyltrichlorosilane self-assembled monolayer into a template featuring polar acid groups. The capability to utilize such chemically active templates for the site-selective assembly of individual carbon nanotubes was demonstrated, and a hierarchical, sequential structuring routine to obtain crossed CNT configurations, formed by preselected carbon nanotubes, was implemented. The introduced process allows the reliable and well-controlled fabrication of tailor-made nanoscopic assemblies of nanomaterials toward their integration into complex device frameworks and could provide control over the electrical properties of the fabricated assemblies.

A new, fast, alternative approach for the fabrication of carbon nanotube (CNT) atomic force microscopy (AFM) tips is reported. Thereby, the tube material is grown on the apex of an AFM tip by utilizing microwave irradiation and selective heating of the catalyst. Reaction times as short as three minutes allowed the fabrication of CNT AFM tips in a highly efficient process. This method represents a promising approach toward a cheaper, faster, and straightforward synthesis of CNT AFM tips.

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