Direct patterning of vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays to 20 mu m pitch using focused laser beam micromachining

作者：Elmer J W; Yaglioglu O^*; Schaeffer R D; Kardos G; Derkach O

来源：Carbon, 2012, 50(11): 4114-4122.

DOI：10.1016/j.carbon.2012.04.059

We present a scalable approach for the fabrication of large-area arrays of carbon nanotube (CNT) structures using focused laser beams in the 0.05-10 W range. We show that CNT films can easily be micromachined into arrays of columns using a wide variety of commercially available pulsed lasers - Excimer, diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS), and CO2 - operating at wavelengths from 248 nm to 9300 nm. We demonstrate that vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) arrays with pitches from 20 mu m to 500 mu m can be produced with aspect ratios greater than 20:1. Machining speeds up to 425 mm/s were demonstrated and trenches were produced from 10 mu m to 200 mu m wide depending on the laser method and beam size. The CO2 laser had the largest beam diameter of 175 mu m and produced the widest columns with the most taper. The remaining lasers, having beam diameters between 10 mu m and 100 mu m, produced smaller columns and finer pitch arrays. The VACNT arrays were shown to have high surface quality with no observable residue left behind, demonstrating focused laser micromachining as a readily available soft tooling means for direct manufacturing of VACNT devices. Laser micromachining methods are compared to evaluate the tradeoffs between quality and manufacturing costs.

• 出版日期2012-9