Repositioning technique in nanowire manipulation by oscillating gripper

In this study, a manipulation device is developed that is able to pick up and reposition a nanomaterial. In the device, the gripper, composed of two silicon microcantilevers, is actuated by XYZ stages on a rotational stage and has eight degrees of freedom. One of the microcantilevers can be vibrated at a resonant frequency by an acoustic oscillator mounted on the gripper base. We successfully picked up a copper (II) oxide NW grown on a substrate and then repositioned the NW. During the picking-up process, the NW was statically bent to break at the root by the gripper motion, or cyclically bent using the acoustic oscillator to induce a fatigue fracture. During the repositioning process, natural adhesion between the NW and the gripping surface often presented a challenge when removing the NW. This difficulty was overcome by vibrating the gripping surface, which resulted in the reduction of the adhesion effects. The mechanism of the reduction of the adhesion effects is discussed concerning the relationship between the adhesion energy and the peeling force acting on the NW. Another technique of repositioning using an inertia force generated by the oscillator is also discussed.