Cutting of carbon nanotubes assisted with oxygen gas inside a scanning electron microscope

The authors report a cutting technique for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) assisted by the presence of oxygen gas. The cutting procedure is conducted in less than 1min using a low-energy electron beam inside a scanning electron microscope. The oxygen gas was regulated by a mass flow controller and was injected at 1SCCM. It was found that although the total pressure inside the specimen chamber reached 10−2Pa, high-speed cutting occurred only in an area close to the oxygen gas nozzle. They assume that the CNTs are cut only under a low acceleration voltage since the CNT molecules are easily excited and ionized by the low-energy electron beam.