Laser-assisted nanofabrication of carbon nanostructures

An overview of laser-assisted techniques developed in our group for fabricating carbon nanostructures, including two-dimensional graphene, one-dimensional carbon nanotubes, and zero-dimensional carbon nanoonions, is presented. Unique laser-material interactions provide versatile possibilities in fabricating carbon nanostructures, including localized heating, direct laser writing, tip-enhanced optical near-field effect, polarization, ablation, resonant excitation, precise energy delivery, and mask-free direct patterning. Rapid single-step fabrication of graphene patterns was achieved using laser directing writing. Parallel integration of single-walled carbon nanotubes was realized by making use of tip-enhanced optical near-field effect. High-quality carbon nanoonions were obtained through laser resonant excitation of precursor molecules.