Length control of carbon nanotubes through nanorobotic manipulations

Fabrication of nano building blocks from as-grown nanostructures is a fundamental top-down nanotechnology towards the nanoassembly of nanosystems such as nano electronics and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) with a bottom-up strategy. Here we show the length of an individual multi-walled carbon nanotube can be modified through either mechanical strain or electric breaking down via nanorobotic manipulations. Improved destructive fabrication by using surface van der Waals clamping forces, constant-length picking-up, electric breaking-down with mobile dual-probe, and shortening with large field emission current are presented as basic length control techniques. Their potential applications in the construction of nanodevices are also demonstrated.