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Updated: May 21, 2026
Precision Milling of Carbon Nanotube Forests Using Low Pressure Scanning Electron Microscopy
Published on: February 5, 2017
Pointwise plucking of suspended carbon nanotubes
Jun Luo1, Wengen Ouyang, Xiaopei Li
1Beijing National Center for Electron Microscopy, The State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. jluo@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
Abstract:
Vibration of nanotubes/wires is significant for fundamental and applied researches. However, it remains challenging to control the vibration with point-level precision. Herein, individual suspended carbon nanotubes are plucked point by point to vibrate in scanning electron microscope with the electron beam as a nanoscale pointer. The vibration is directly imaged, and its images fit well with simulations from the plucking mechanism. This demonstrates a new way to manipulate the nanotube vibration with unprecedented precision.
