Automatic Localization of Carbon Nanotubes in the Scanning Electron Mircoscope

When doing automated assembly on the nanoscale, the localization and indexing of the nanoscale objects is challenging. The video shows how a silicon wafer containing cnts is scanned for the single cnts in the SEM. The procedure starts at a low magnification, providing automatic zooming and image optimisation (focus, brightness/contrast) for CNT-localization. The cnts are then magnified in several steps, until tip and bottom end of each CNT is automatically registered. This step is the starting point for any automated assembly process on the nanoscale.