  A fabrication method for positioning and embedding a single-walled carbon
nanotube (SWNT) across the diameter of a solid state nanopore is presented.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is used to grow SWNTs over arrays of focused
ion beam (FIB) milled pores in a thin silicon nitride membrane. This typically
yields at least one pore whose diameter is centrally crossed by a SWNT. The
final diameter of the FIB pore is adjusted to create a nanopore of any desired
diameter by atomic layer deposition (ALD), simultaneously embedding and
insulating the SWNT everywhere but in the region that crosses the diameter of
the final nanopore, where it remains pristine and bare. This
nanotube-articulated nanopore is an important step towards the realization of a
new type of detector for biomolecule sensing and electronic characterization,
including DNA sequencing.
