Vertically aligned carbon nanowires (CNWs) : Top-down approach using photolithography and pyrolysis

Top-down approach for vertically aligned CNWs has not reported yet although it is necessary for immediate integration of CNWs with micro and nano systems. In this paper, vertically aligned pyrolyzed carbon nanowires (CNWs) is fabricated by photolithography with modification and pyrolysis as a top-down approach which the control of shape and position of CNWs is reliable. Sub-mu m high aspect ratio (HAR) SU-8, negative tone photoresist, tip array fabricated using modified photolithography is transformed to carbon structure with shrinkage which reduces the dimension of CNWs to a few hundreds of nanometer or less. EDS analysis shows that fabricated CNWs is consist of pure carbon. The atomic structure of fabricated CNWs is amorphous as shown in XRD analysis. We expect that the new fabrication method for vertically aligned CNWs as top down approach has a huge potential to expand an application to various micro and nano systems for their controllable positioning, array, and shape.