title: Controlled positioning of carbon nanotubes by dielectrophoresis: insights into the solvent and substrate role.
abstract: We demonstrate the ability to precisely control the deposition of a defined number of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) from solution onto microfabricated electrodes using dielectrophoresis. The solvation shell around the CNTs, exhibiting a high dielectric constant which is possibly larger than the intrinsic dielectric constant of CNTs, is found to play a crucial role in electrophoretic processes. Substrate resistivity is also very important: The spatial repartition of the electric field between the substrate and the microelectrodes leads to deviations from the precise location of the CNTs. A recipe is given for the dielectrophoresis of CNTs which can be extended to other nanowires or nanotubes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Nanostructures et Nouveaux Materiaux Electroniques, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martial
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duchamp
authors.forename: Kyumin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dwir
authors.forename: Jin Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kapon
authors.forename: László
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Forró
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Magrez