Fabrication of graphitic nanowire structure by electron beam lithography

The graphitic nanowire structure was fabricated by local graphitization induced by direct electron-beam irradiation or the annealing treatment of wire-shaped nano-sized pattern, where glassy carbon film was used as the precursor materials. The direct irradiation of the 50 keV electron beam hardly causes the local graphitization of the sample, while the annealing of nanowire-patterned glassy carbon with 50nm width successfully gives graphitic nanowire structure. The electrical conductivity of the fabricated nanowire structure shows metallic temperature dependence. However, the graphitic domain size of the wire was found to be very small (ca. 5 nm) by using Raman spectroscopy and the magnetoresistance. Higher temperature annealing is expected to improve the crystallinity of the graphitic nanowire. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.