Ever since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by Iijima in 1991, there have been extensive research efforts on their synthesis, physics, electronics, chemistry, and applications due to the fact that CNTs were predicted to have extraordinary physical, mechanical, chemical, optical, and electronic properties. Among the various forms of CNTs, single-walled and multi-walled, random and aligned, semiconducting and metallic, aligned CNTs are especially important since fundamental physics studies and many important applications will not be possible without alignment. Even though there have been significant endeavors on growing CNTs in an aligned configuration since their discovery, little success had been realized before our first report on growing individually aligned CNTs on various substrates by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [Science 282 (1998) 1105–1108]. Our report spearheaded a new field on growth, characterization, physics, and applications of aligned CNTs. Up to now, there have been thousands of scientific publications on synthesizing, studying, and utilizing aligned CNTs in various aspects. In this communication, we review the current status of aligned CNTs, the physics for their alignment, their applications in field emission, optical antennas, subwavelength light transmission in CNT-based nanocoax structures, nanocoax arrays for novel solar cell structures, etc. The focus of this review is to examine various aligned CNT systems, either as an individual or as an array, either the orientation is vertical, parallel, or at other angles to the substrate horizon, either the CNT core structures are mostly hollow channels or are composed of complex compartments. Major fabrication methods are illustrated in detail, particularly the most widely used PECVD growth technique on which various device integration schemes are based, followed by applications whereas current limitations and challenges will also be discussed to lay down the foundation for future developments.

中文翻译：

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定向碳纳米管的物理与应用

自从 1991 年饭岛发现碳纳米管 (CNT) 以来，人们对其合成、物理、电子、化学和应用进行了广泛的研究，因为人们预测 CNT 具有非凡的物理、机械、化学、光学和电子特性。在各种形式的 CNT 中，单壁和多壁、随机和对齐、半导体和金属、对齐的 CNT 尤其重要，因为基础物理研究和许多重要应用将无法进行对齐。尽管自发现以来一直在以对齐的配置生长碳纳米管方面做出了重大努力，在我们首次报道通过等离子体增强化学气相沉积 (PECVD) 在各种基材上生长单独排列的 CNT 之前，几乎没有取得成功 [Science 282 (1998) 1105–1108]。我们的报告开创了对齐碳纳米管的生长、表征、物理和应用的新领域。到目前为止，已经有数千篇关于合成、研究和利用各个方面的对齐碳纳米管的科学出版物。在本次交流中，我们回顾了对齐的 CNT 的现状、对齐的物理学、它们在场发射中的应用、光学天线、基于 CNT 的纳米共轴结构中的亚波长光传输、用于新型太阳能电池结构的纳米共轴阵列等。本次审查的目的是检查各种对齐的 CNT 系统，无论是作为个体还是作为阵列，无论取向是垂直的、平行的，还是与衬底地平线成其他角度，碳纳米管核心结构要么大多是空心通道，要么由复杂的隔室组成。详细说明了主要的制造方法，特别是各种器件集成方案所基于的最广泛使用的 PECVD 生长技术，其次是应用，同时还将讨论当前的限制和挑战，为未来的发展奠定基础。