Ultrathin "bed-of-nails" membranes of single-wall carbon nanotubes.

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were arranged in a membrane similar to a "bed-of-nails", in which a single layer of parallel SWNTs was densely packed and aligned along the normal to the membrane. The planar, free-standing, ultrathin SWNT membranes were prepared by milling a neat SWNT fiber with a gallium focused ion beam. The approach is readily applicable to cutting nanotubes to a desirable and precise length and enables further fabrication of devices using the "bed-of-nails" membranes to test the transport properties of SWNTs.