Spatially Selective, High-Density Placement of Polyfluorene-Sorted Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes in Organic Solvents

Abstract

High-performance logic based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) requires high-density arrays of selectively placed semiconducting CNTs. Although polymer-wrapping methods can allow CNTs to be sorted to a >99.9% semiconducting purity, patterning these polymer-wrapped CNTs is an outstanding problem. We report the directed self-assembly of polymer-coated semiconducting CNTs using self-assembled monolayers that bind CNTs into arrays of patterned trenches. We demonstrate that CNTs can be placed into 100 nm wide HfO₂ trenches with an electrical connection yield as high as 90% and into 50 nm wide trenches with a yield as high as 70%. Our directed self-assembly method is an important step forward in pitch scaling.