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Using bent carbon nanotubes for the fabrication

of electromechanical switches
Aliasghar Sani, Sara Darbari, Yaser Abdi
*
, Ezatollah Arzi
Nanophysics Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Tehran, North Kargar, Tehran, Iran
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 11 December 2011
Accepted 19 March 2012
Available online 23 March 2012
A B S T R A C T
An electromechanical switch based on bent carbon nanotubes was fabricated. The shape
and structure of the bent carbon nanotubes allows one to produce a low cost and low work-
ing voltage switch. The fabrication process is free of any nanolithography. The electrical
characteristics of the fabricated device were investigated, both experimentally and theoret-
ically. Actuation of the fabricated device shows hysteresis behavior in the measured IV
curves depending on the structural parameters of the bent nanotubes. The relationship
between the pull-in voltage and the morphology of the bent nanotubes was studied by
the obtained hysteresis curves. A scanning electron microscope was used for structural
analysis. This study introduced an easy way to fabricate electromechanical switches with
controllable on/off states.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The development of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMSs)
is expected to signicantly impact many areas of science and
technology and eventually replace microelectromechanical
systems. Increasing the efciency, reducing the size and
decreasing the power consumption are some advantages of
the NEMSs [13]. Thanks to these individual properties, there
is much interest in utilizing the electromechanical switches
to fabricate logic devices with nearly zero off-stage leakage
current and low threshold voltage [46].
Recently growth of nanostructures and self alignment
methods were utilized to fabricate nanoelectromechanical
devices [7,8]. This bottom up approach in which the struc-
tures are realized without the limitations of etching and
lithography processes, makes the fabrication process simple.
Because of their unique electrical and mechanical proper-
ties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the promising candi-
dates for NEMS. CNT-based nanoelectromechanical switch
was fabricated and studied by Ryan et al. [9]. In this study they
have presented fabrication of SWCNT-based electromechani-
cal devices, consisting of small bundles of SWCNTs sus-
pended over a trench with an actuation electrode at its
bottom. Jang et al. [10] have reported fabrication of a nano-
gripper using aligned multiwall CNTs. They have shown that
the fabricated nano-device can be activated by a 120 V/lm
electrical eld which is signicantly lower than the MEMS
capacitive devices [11]. Also there are some theoretical study
and simulations on the electromechanical behavior of the
nanotubes based devices [12]. Structure of the devices is very
important for their electromechanical behavior.
In this work we have reported a novel nanoelectromechan-
ical switch based on bent multiwall carbon nanotubes. The
fabricated device has a low deriving eld because of its un-
ique morphological characteristic. In this study we have the-
oretically and experimentally investigated the electrical
characteristics of the device during its mechanical move-
ment. Actuation of the fabricated device shows hysteresis
behavior in the measured IV curves which is the evidence
of adhesion between the bent nanotubes by van der Waals
force. The results of the model are consistent with the mea-
sured electrical characteristics.
0008-6223/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2012.03.035
* Corresponding author: Fax: +98 21 61118610.
E-mail address: y.abdi@ut.ac.ir (Y. Abdi).
C A R B O N 5 0 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 3 6 3 5 3 6 4 0
Avai l abl e at www. sci encedi r ect . com
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ car bon
2. Experimental details
Fabrication of the bent nanotubes was started by cleaning the
P-type silicon wafer in a RCA#1 solution consisting of DI
water, H
2
O
2
and NH
4
OH with relative volume ratio of 5:1:1.
A 100 nm thickness of SiO
2
layer was then thermally grown
on silicon substrate to electrically isolate the CNTs from the
substrate. The sample is then placed in thermal evaporation
system to deposit a nickel layer with thickness of 510 nm,
at the base pressure of 3 10
6
Torr and a substrate tempera-
ture of 250 C. Nickel is used as the catalyst to grow CNTs, by
chemical vapor deposition [1315]. CNT growth was started by
a heat treatment in a PECVD chamber at a temperature of
730 C for about 15 min in a H
2
ambient with the pressure of
7 Torr. Subsequently, hydrogen plasma was applied on the
sample with a power density of 5 W cm
2
for about 5 min to
form nickel nanoislands. The growth of CNTs is then
achieved by introducing the C
2
H
2
to the chamber as a carbon
source. Flow rate of H
2
and C
2
H
2
during the growth step were
kept at 100 sccm and 50 sccm, respectively. Vertically aligned
CNTs were obtained in this step. To achieve bent CNTs with a
controllable bending angle the direction of the applied electric
eld on the sample was changed during the growth time
[1618]. Tilting the sample holder plate during the growth
causes a change in the growth direction of the nanotubes.
To construct the nanoswitch structure out of these bent
CNTs, prior to the deposition of the Ni layer, a 200 nm gold
layer was coated on the substrate to form the nanoswitch
electrodes. The deposition of the gold layer was carried out
in a DC-sputtering system with a plasma power of 150 W.
The deposited Ni/Au bi-layer was patterned using the stan-
dard photolithography to achieve the required structures with
features around 1.5 lm.
A HITACHI 4160 eld emission scanning electron micro-
scope (FESEM) operating at an electron accelerating voltage
of 15 kV was used to investigate the morphology and struc-
ture of the fabricated device and bent nanostructures.
3. Results and discussions
Fig. 1 shows the SEM results of the grown carbon nanotubes.
As shown in this gure, the alignment of the CNT arrays on
silicon substrate is different in these images. The bent CNTs
were grown in two steps. In the rst step, the growth was car-
ried out by applying the electric eld vertically on the samples
for about 15 min. Vertically aligned CNTs (part a) were
achieved as a consequence. Then, in the second step, by
tilting the sample relatively to the cathode plate, the angle
between the sample and the direction of the electric eld
was changed to 45 (part b) and 90 (part c) while the growth
process was continued for about 60 min. As can be estimated
from the SEM images, the length and diameter of the vertical
part of the CNTs are respectively about 23 lm and 50
100 nm, as well as the lateral part. Effective spacing between
the nanotubes is also about 200500 nm.
SEM images of the fabricated switch are demonstrated in
Fig. 2. Part a of this gure is the side view image of the switch
structure containing the contact electrodes connected to the
narrow lines of bent CNTs. Fig. 2b and c show the cross
sectional view of the functional part of the switch. This part
consists of two adjacent lines of bent CNTs with a spacing
of about 1.5 lm. After growing the bent CNTs, the very tip of
bent CNTs are a few hundreds of nanometers apart from
neighboring CNTs, which can be observed in Fig. 2b and c. It
should be mentioned that the bent CNT-based switch was
fabricated without the need to any nanolithography.
IV characteristics of the fabricated device (with spacing of
2 lm between the lines) is represented in Fig. 3. As shown in
this gure the current between two electrodes increases shar-
ply at applied voltages of around 100 V. The plot in the inset
Fig. 1 SEM images of (a) vertical and (b,c) bent CNTs. Bent
CNTs were obtained by changing the direction of the electric
eld during the growth process by (b) 45 and (c) 90.
3636 C A R B O N 5 0 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 3 6 3 5 3 6 4 0
displays the IV characteristic of the switch in the range of
040 V, showing the FowlerNordheim behavior of the eld
emission. It means that at this range of applied voltages
electron emission from the bent nanotubes has a dominant
contribution in the measured current. On the other hand, at
the voltages upper than 95 V the current suddenly increases
to about 100 mA and the IV characteristics has an Ohmic
behavior. IV measurement represented in Fig. 3 conrms
that the bending of such nanotubes is sufcient for contact
between the electrodes. This bending is achieved by
electrostatic force due to the positive and the negative charge
built up in the neighboring nanotubes by applying sufcient
voltage bias between them.
Utilizing the bent nanotubes for fabrication of nano-
switch in this work allows us to apply microlithography in
the fabrication process. Fig. 4 shows the IV characteristics
of the switches fabricated by vertical CNTs (dashed line)
and the bent CNTs (solid line). Spacing between the lines of
nanotubes for both structures is 1.5 lm. This comparison de-
picts that the threshold voltage (the voltage to bring the nano-
tubes into contact) decreases by utilizing the bent nanotubes
in the switch structure. Similar measurements also show that
the threshold voltage decreases by increasing the arm of bent
Fig. 4 IV characteristics of the switches based on vertical
(dashed line) and bent (solid line) CNT.
Fig. 2 (a) Side view SEM image of the fabricated switch containing the contact electrodes connected to the narrow lines of
bent CNTs. (b) and (c) Cross sectional viewof the functional part of the switch. This part consists of two line electrodes of bent
CNTs with a spacing of about 1.5 lm.
Fig. 3 IV characteristics of the nano-switch with spacing
of 2 lm between the lines. Inset plot is the IV
characteristics of the switch in range of 040 V showing the
FowlerNordheim behavior of the eld emission.
C A R B O N 5 0 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 3 6 3 5 3 6 4 0 3637
nanotubes (not shown). It is believed to be a consequence of
eld enhancement at the tip of bent nanotubes with longer
arms.
Fig. 5 shows other measurements in which the applied
voltage was increased to about 100 V and then immediately
decreased to zero. As shown in this gure the IV curve in
the contacting cycle of the CNTs (increasing voltage) is not
matched with the releasing curve. It is believed that adhesion
of the nanotubes and pull-in instability is responsible for the
observed hysteresis in the electrostatic actuation [10]. Similar
hysteresis has been previously reported for NEMS switches
and multiwalled nanotube switches [10,19,20].
The starting nonlinear part of the IV curve (Fig. 5) is a sig-
nature of eld emission effect which increases exponentially
as the distance between the bent CNTs is decreased. Beyond
the pull-in voltage there is a change in the rate of current in-
crease. One possible explanation is that the nanotubes on the
electrodes come into physical contact at the pull-in voltage
and IV curve becomes linear. After the physical contact,
adhesion force becomes considerable. Therefore, by lowering
the applied voltage down to pull-in voltage, some of the nano-
tubes are still contacted. So, the measured current at pull-in
voltage during an on/off cycle is different.
The point between the linear and exponential regions can
be obtained by the curves of Fig. 5. The point after which the
IV curve in the cycle is overlapped is the point between the
exponential part and the linear part. Pull-in (releasing) voltage
is the point after (before) which the IV curve in the cycle is
overlapped (separated). Part a of Fig. 5, also compares the IV
curves of two switches fabricated based on vertical CNTs and
bent CNTs. As shown in this gure the pull-in voltage of bent
CNTs is smaller than vertical CNTs. Fig. 5b shows the IV mea-
surement of two switches based on bent nanotubes with dif-
ferent heights. This gure indicates that the pull-in (contact)
voltages and releasing voltages are different for these
switches. The shorter nanotubes release easier thanthe longer
ones. The obtained hysteresis and IV measurements were
studiedtheoretically. The model andthe corresponding results
are presented in the next part.
Finally, we have also investigated the repeatability of the
electrical behavior of the fabricated device during numerous
switching cycles. A repeatability value of about 98.4% in
threshold voltage has been measured which shows a high le-
vel of repeatability.
4. Modeling
Modeling the electromechanical behavior of the fabricated
switch is based on calculating the elastostatic and electro-
static forces applied to the nanotubes. Calculating the electro-
static force was performed using a standard capacitance
model in which the nanotubes were approximated as perfect
cylindrical conductors such as shown in Fig. 6.
The capacitance value of such a structure depends on the
nanotubediameterandlengthof theCNTs, andcanbewrittenas
C
4p
0
H
Log
H

H
2
R
2
p

R

Log
Hr

Hr
2
R
2
p

r
2
R
2
p

p
0
L
Ln
R
dR
1
Fig. 5 IV sweeps for the fabricated devices containing the contact curve and the releasing curve. (a) IV curves of two
switches fabricated based on bent (top) and vertical (bottom) CNTs. (b) IV measurement of two switches based on bent
nanotubes with the same spacing of 1.5 lm and different heights of 2 lm (bottom) and 4 lm (top). Pull-in voltage of bent CNTs
is smaller than vertical ones and releasing voltages of shorter nanotubes is higher than that of the long ones.
3638 C A R B O N 5 0 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 3 6 3 5 3 6 4 0
where H, R, r and L are the structural parameters as dis-
played schematically in Fig. 6. Assuming electrostatic energy
of U
elec
= 1/2(CV
2
), electrostatic force, F
elec
, is then derived by
F
elec

d
1
2
CV
2

dr
2
The EulerBernoulli beam theory was employed to model
the elastic behavior of the nanotube. In the previous studies
[21], this behavior is approximated by linear beam equation of
EI
@
4
w
@x
4
qA
@
2
w
@t
2
c
@w
@t
F 3
where w is the transverse deection of the tube, q is the den-
sity of the nanotube assumed to be 1330 kg m
3
, A is the
cross-sectional area, c is the coefcient of damping term
and F is the applied force. The Youngs modulus, E, and the
moment of inertia, I, in this equation are assumed to be
1054 10
9
Pa and p/4 R
4
, respectively, where R is the nano-
tube radius.
Substituting the electrostatic force from Eq. (2) into the Eq.
(3) leads to the electro-mechanical characteristic equation of
the fabricated device. It was assumed that the electrostatic
force acts normal to the tip of the bent nanotube and the
end of nanotube is xed on the substrate. Consequently, the
solution needs to satisfy the following boundary conditions.
wj
x0;t
0
@w
@x
j
x0;t
0
@
2
w
@x
2
j
xL;t
0
@
3
w
@x
3
j
xL;t
F
Fig. 7 is the pull-in voltage analysis obtained by the model for
the bent nanotubes with diameter of 40 nm, line spacing of
1.5 lm and arm length of 1.2 lm. This gure shows the gap be-
tween the nanotubes versus the applied voltage for devices with
different heights of bent nanotubes. As shown in this gure the
threshold voltage decreases by increasing the nanotube height,
in accordance to the experimental results. Using the Fowler
Nordheim equation for eld emission the emission current was
calculatedfor the structure andcomparedwiththe experimental
results. As shown in Fig. 8 the experimental results are matched
withthe theory for voltages below80 V(pull-involtage). It means
that the IV characteristic of the device has a FowlerNordheim
behavior at low voltages but higher than pull-in voltage the de-
vice has an Ohmic behavior coming from the physical contact.
To compare the model and experimental results quantita-
tively, the pull-in voltage obtained by the model and experiment
Fig. 7 Results of the model for pull-in voltage of the bent
nanotubes with diameter of 40 nm, line spacing of 1.5 lm
and arm length of 1.2 lm. This gure shows the variation of
gap between the nanotubes, versus the applied voltage for
the devices with different CNT heights.
Fig. 6 Schematic of the fabricated nano-switch based on bent nanotubes.
Fig. 8 Comparison between the IV characteristic of the
device obtained by the experiment (dots) and theory (line).
C A R B O N 5 0 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 3 6 3 5 3 6 4 0 3639
are listed in Table 1. Differences between the model prediction
and experimental observation come fromcalculating the capac-
itance value of the structure in our model. As mentioned earlier,
for the applied approximation in calculating the capacitance va-
lue, the bent CNT is replaced by two metallic cylinders. In this
approximation the vertical part of the CNT has been neglected.
Calculated error in this table shows that this approximation
works better for shorter bent CNTs, as was expected.
5. Summary and conclusions
The bent carbon nanotubes were grown successfully on a pre-
patterned substrate to achieve a nano-switch structure. The
bent nanotubes were obtained by applying the controlled
electric eld during the plasma enhanced CVD growth. Fabri-
cated device was characterized electrically and a hysteresis
was observed in the achieved IV curves. Contact and releas-
ing voltage of the nano-switch were obtained by analyzing the
hysteresis in the electrical measurements. As demonstrated
in the previous section results showed that the electrical
characteristics of the switches depend on the structural
parameters. In conclusion the introduced method for fabri-
cating the switch allows one to have a switch with desired
on/off states. Measurements showed that the contact voltage
for the fabricated switch based on the bent nanotubes can be
smaller than about 60 V. In this study we have shown that
fabrication of switches without using nanolithography is pos-
sible. Also it was shown that the bent nanotubes are promis-
ing candidates for fabrication of CNT based switches and the
eld emission based devices. The theoretical study on the fab-
ricated device was in good agreement with the experimental
data. All in all we believe that fabrication of such nano-de-
vices using the bent nanotubes can decrease the power con-
sumption and fabrication costs.
Acknowledgment
We would like to thank the Research Council of the University
of Tehran for partial nancial support.
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Table 1 Pull-in voltage obtained experimentally beside the model result, for the bent CNT
based device with CNT diameter of 40 nm and spacing (r) of 500 nm.
Nanotube height (L) Pull-in voltage (Model) (V) Pull-in voltage (Experiment) (V) Error (%)
6 lm 72.4 79.4 8.80
4 lm 88.8 92.5 4
2 lm 97.5 97.6 0.10
3640 C A R B O N 5 0 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 3 6 3 5 3 6 4 0

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