Using a nanomanipulation system contained within a scanning electron microscope we investigate the thermionic electron emission from multiwall carbon nanotubes. Peak emission currents of 65 nA are measured. The carbon nanotubes being grown at low temperature by the chemical vapor deposition method are defective with poor thermal conductivity. We believe it is crucial for the thermal conductivit...

NEMS (nanoelectromechanical systems) loom beyond the MEMS horizon as the new frontier in miniaturization. Nanorobots and other NEMS are expected to find revolutionary applications in science, engineering and everyday life. Until now, nanostructures have been built primarily in two dimensions, because of the difficulties of threedimensional (3-D) fabrication. This paper describes a promising app...

Using atomic force microscopy nanomanipulation, we position a single Au nanoparticle near a CdSe/ZnS quantum dot to construct a hybrid nanostructure with variable geometry. The coupling between the two particles is varied in a systematic and reversible manner. The photoluminescence lifetime and blinking of the same quantum dot are measured before and after assembly of the structure. In some hyb...

A novel dual tip nanomanipulation atomic force microscope (AFM) platform operating in ambient conditions is presented. The system is equipped with a high frequency quartz piezoelectric self-sensing scanning probe for fast imaging and a passive cantilever for manipulation. The system is validated by imaging and selective pushing/pulling of gold colloid beads (diameters from 80 to 180 nm). This p...

Optical tweezers have emerged as a powerful tool for micro and nanomanipulation. Using optical tweezers to perform automated assembly requires on-line monitoring of components in the assembly workspace. This paper presents algorithms for estimating 3-dimensional positions of micro-spheres in the assembly workspace. Algorithms presented in this paper use images obtained by optical section micros...

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is used to study the morphology of graphene grown on 4H-SiC(0001̄). A mesh-like network of ridges with high curvature is revealed that bound atomically flat, tile-like facets of few-layer graphene (FLG). To further study the structural properties of the ridge network, nanomanipulation experiments are performed using an AFM tip to deform the ridges in both the ve...

High precision microrobots are needed more and more to perform micro/nanomanipulation and microassembly tasks in various environments like microrobotic stations, electronic microscopes (SEM, TEM), etc. Current microrobots are based on the use of smart materials to perform proportional or incremental actuation. To avoid the main drawbacks of these microrobots (non linearities, integration of sen...

Conventional atomic force microscope nanomanipulation is inefficient because of the serial imaging/manipulation operation. We present here a parallel imaging/manipulation force microscope PIMM to improve manipulation efficiency. The PIMM is equipped with two individually actuated cantilevers with protrudent tips. One cantilever acts as an imaging sensor by scanning nano-objects and tip of the o...

This paper presents a dynamic system modelling approach of a nanomanipulator chain developed by the ICA-ACROE and LEPES laboratories. The chain is a very complex instrument, serving for precise sensing and manipulation in nanometer scale environment. The objective is to find a suitable model of the chain in view of stability and performances analysis, and for further control design of the feedb...

As an imaging system, scanning electron microscope (SEM) performs an important role in autonomous micro-nanomanipulation applications. When it comes to the sub micrometer range and at high scanning speeds, the images produced by the SEM are noisy and need to be evaluated or corrected beforehand. In this article, the quality of images produced by a tungsten gun SEM has been evaluated by quantify...