title: Visualizing individual carbon nanotubes with optical microscopy.
abstract: This paper reports a high-throughput, label-free technique to visualize individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a silicon wafer using a conventional optical microscope. We show that individual CNTs can locally enhance the rate of vapor-phase HF etching of SiO2 to produce a SiO2 trench that is several to several tens of nanometers in depth. The trench is visible under an optical microscope due to a change in the optical interference in the SiO2 layer, allowing the location of an individual CNT to be determined. With this technique, we demonstrate high-throughput Raman characterization and reactivity studies on individual CNTs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, United States.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Novak
authors.forename: Sumedh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Surwade
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prokop
authors.forename: Kirill
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bolotin
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hone
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brus
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nuckolls
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu