Structural and Electrical Characterization of Dielectrics, Carbon Nanotubes and Nanoelectronic Devices by Means of Scanning Probe Microscopy

Abstract

During the past years, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has become an indispensable tool for non-destructive characterization of structures at the nanometer-scale. By implementing current sensing techniques, the topographic imaging capabilities of the AFM have been extended. Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) allows direct correlations of feature locations with the corresponding electrical properties. In this paper, several examples on the application of combined AFM and C-AFM techniques will be presented in order to illustrate the potential of the scanning probe microscopy (SPM) technique for structural and electrical characterization of gate dielectrics, carbon nanotubes as well as nanoelectronic device structures.

Fabrication of Ultra-Sensitive Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Sensors (CNTFES) for Biomedical Applications

“…For the development of this novel process we used extensively atomic force microscopy (AFM) for process control (12) and to optimize the CNTFET fabrication technology as well. The role of the Al/Ni films as "sacrificial" catalyst to stimulate SWNT growth is evident from the AFM images of Fig.…”

“…At our institute we have developed a novel process to overcome the limitations of manual fabrication of CNTFETs and hence CNTFESs as well (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Our group has succeeded to develop a simple, reproducible fabrication process to grow individual SWNTs and SWNT-networks as well in order to fabricate fully functional CNTFETs and SWNT-based field-effect controlled sensors.…”