Coating carbon nanotubes with compound ultrathin film: A novel route to functional SPM tips

Abstract

We demonstrated the coating of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with compound ultrathin films towards functional SPM tips. Conductive, ferromagnetic, and superconducting materials were uniformly coated around isolated multi-walled CNTs (MWNTs). As a conductive probe, the CNT glued on a W tip was wholly coated with a thin PtIr layer 6 nm thick. The current-voltage characteristics of the resultant PtIr-coated CNT tips indicated that the PtIr coating stably reduced the resistance between the CNT tip end and the W supporting tip. Our method will facilitate the development of family of novel functional scanning probe microscopies (SPMs) using CNT tips. © 2005 The Surface Science Society of Japan.