Visualizing individual carbon nanotubes with optical microscopy

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.