Controllable physicochemical properties of WO_x thin films grown under glancing angle

• Rupam Mandal,
• Aparajita Mandal,
• Alapan Dutta,
• Rengasamy Sivakumar,
• Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava and
• Tapobrata Som

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 350–359, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.31

• separate peaks. The intense peak at 530.7 eV can be assigned to lattice O atoms (OL) in the stoichiometric WO3 structure, whereas the peaks at 531.5 eV are due to the presence of OV in the films [40]. In addition, the presence of surface adsorbates (at 532.6 eV) is observed in both the as-deposited and

Determining by Raman spectroscopy the average thickness and N-layer-specific surface coverages of MoS₂ thin films with domains much smaller than the laser spot size

• Felipe Wasem Klein,
• Jean-Roch Huntzinger,
• Vincent Astié,
• Damien Voiry,
• Romain Parret,
• Houssine Makhlouf,
• Sandrine Juillaguet,
• Jean-Manuel Decams,
• Sylvie Contreras,
• Périne Landois,
• Ahmed-Azmi Zahab,
• Jean-Louis Sauvajol and
• Matthieu Paillet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 279–296, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.26

Multiscale modelling of biomolecular corona formation on metallic surfaces

• Parinaz Mosaddeghi Amini,
• Ian Rouse,
• Julia Subbotina and
• Vladimir Lobaskin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 215–229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.21

• Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations as implemented in the CoronaKMC tool [26] were employed to investigate competitive adsorption and to determine the composition of the protein corona. This method models adsorbates as hard spheres, which adsorb and desorb to the surface of the NPs, with different

• orientations of each protein treated as different potential adsorbates to allow for a more physically realistic model of corona formation for anisotropic proteins. In brief, a standard kinetic Monte Carlo routine is used to advance the simulation from one event, collision of an incoming adsorbate with the NP

• nm−2) and mass abundance (represented as a percentage of the total adsorbed mass). These calculations were performed utilizing the most recent KMC method modifications, including an alternative mode in which the acceptance–rejection criteria for incoming adsorbates are altered to allow replacement of

unDrift: A versatile software for fast offline SPM image drift correction

• Tobias Dickbreder,
• Franziska Sabath,
• Lukas Höltkemeier,
• Ralf Bechstein and
• Angelika Kühnle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1225–1237, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.101

• ]. Offline drift correction strategies, in contrast, correct the effect of drift in SPM images after the measurement. Drift correction has been carried out based on the apparent movement of stationary features (e.g., fixed defects or adsorbates) traceable in consecutive images [5][29][30][31] or images with

From a free electron gas to confined states: A mixed island of PTCDA and copper phthalocyanine on Ag(111)

• Alfred J. Weymouth,
• Emily Roche and
• Franz J. Giessibl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1572–1577, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.131

• , often with a single row of P2C, as well as large islands of pure PTCDA and lone CuPc adsorbates around the islands. While the small amount of P2C is not relevant to this study, we found it an unavoidable byproduct of our preparation. It is not clear why we observe the P2C phase as isolated rows within

Topographic signatures and manipulations of Fe atoms, CO molecules and NaCl islands on superconducting Pb(111)

• Carl Drechsel,
• Philipp D’Astolfo,
• Jung-Ching Liu,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Rémy Pawlak and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1–9, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.1

• demonstrated. We show a general propensity of these adsorbates to diffuse at low temperature under gentle scanning conditions. Our findings provide new insights into high-resolution probe microscopy imaging with terminated tips, decoupling atoms and molecules by NaCl islands or tip-induced lateral manipulation

• microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are required to accurately disentangle structural and electronic properties of atomic or molecular structures on these superconducting platforms. STM/AFM generally allows for a controlled repositioning of adsorbates, both by lateral and vertical

• low temperature. This differs distinctly from the adsorption on Pb(110), which has also been performed. In contrast, NaCl islands and single Fe atoms are more stable. Nevertheless, a general propensity for a tip-induced displacement of these adsorbates on the Pb(111) surface can be fulfilled. We

Two dynamic modes to streamline challenging atomic force microscopy measurements

• Alexei G. Temiryazev,
• Andrey V. Krayev and
• Marina P. Temiryazeva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1226–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.90

• that we can register. When scanning in air, achieving this goal is complicated by substantial adhesive forces associated with surface water and/or other adsorbates, which means that the onset of repulsive interaction should be registered against a strong background of attraction. This task can be

Irradiation-driven molecular dynamics simulation of the FEBID process for Pt(PF₃)₄

• Alexey Prosvetov,
• Alexey V. Verkhovtsev,
• Gennady Sushko and
• Andrey V. Solov’yov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1151–1172, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.86

• desorption rates for different substrates, temperatures, and concentrations of the adsorbates can be performed by means of MD simulations. It should be stressed that, while the adsorption process can be simulated in detail on the atomistic level, the exact mechanism of precursor deposition does not affect

• replenishment phase defines the concentration of adsorbates and the amount of desorbed molecules at the beginning of the next irradiation phase. If the replenishment time is long enough, the steady state is achieved. For shorter replenishment times, the concentration of adsorbates will be a fraction of the

• newly adsorbed precursor molecules. The amount and spatial distribution of the precursor molecules added at each replenishment step can be varied in the model to describe different experimental conditions. The spatial distribution of the adsorbates added within the replenishment phase can also be

Molecular assemblies on surfaces: towards physical and electronic decoupling of organic molecules

• Sabine Maier and
• Meike Stöhr

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 950–956, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.71

• dielectric layers on top of the surface [34][35] or a chemical modification of the surface to saturate the dangling bonds. In surface-science-based studies, for the latter approach hydrogenation of semiconductor surfaces is frequently applied as effective passivation against chemisorption of adsorbates [36

• design often relies on non-planar adsorbates with bulky spacer groups, which can adopt various conformations. From a theoretical point of view, finding the energetically most stable conformational structure can be challenging and costly because conventional atomistic simulations are often limited to the

• substrate. Hurdax et al. reported that both charged and neutral species of sexiphenyl can co-exist on thin dielectric MgO films on Ag(100) [89]. Due to the changed work function of the substrate, charging of the adsorbates is enabled by electron tunneling. The charge transfer strongly influences the

Electromigration-induced formation of percolating adsorbate islands during condensation from the gaseous phase: a computational study

• Alina V. Dvornichenko,
• Vasyl O. Kharchenko and
• Dmitrii O. Kharchenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 694–703, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.55

• α leads to ordering processes at α ≥ αc. At a fixed value of the adsorption coefficient α = α0 adsorbates will self-organize into surface structures if the rate of transference reactions k∥ exceeds the critical value . It is seen from Figure 2 that an increase in the values of the interaction

Local stiffness and work function variations of hexagonal boron nitride on Cu(111)

• Abhishek Grewal,
• Yuqi Wang,
• Matthias Münks,
• Klaus Kern and
• Markus Ternes

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 559–565, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.46

• for atomic and molecular adsorbates owing to its local electronic trapping potential due to the in-plane electric field. We obtain work function (Φ) variations on the h-BN/Cu(111) superstructure of the order of 100 meV using two independent methods, namely the shift of field emission resonances and

• expected at low bias voltages making it transparent to STM, as seen in Figure 2b,d. At this bias, only Friedel oscillations due to the scattering of the Cu(111) surface-state electrons on defects and adsorbates are observed. Contrarily, as Figure 2a reveals, at higher bias, the STM topography corresponds

• images and the STM topography. Also, the Δf variation between rim and valley areas in both images changes only marginally. The additionally imaged adsorbates (dots or ring-like features) allow, thereby, the precise alignment between the subsequently acquired data sets. Work function variation While the

TiO_x/Pt₃Ti(111) surface-directed formation of electronically responsive supramolecular assemblies of tungsten oxide clusters

• Marco Moors,
• Yun An,
• Agnieszka Kuc and
• Kirill Yu. Monakhov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 203–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.16

• substrate and, thus, they should be special attraction points for adsorbates. As shown in Figure 1c and Figure 1d, it is very probable that W3O9 clusters prefer to adsorb these defects inside the trenches of the z’-TiOx phase. The result is a 1D alignment of the clusters along the direction of the stripes

• thin. Thus, a direct contact of the adsorbates with the metallic alloy surface can be excluded. As shown in Figure 2c and Figure 2d, the adsorption of W3O9 on the hexagonal w’-TiOx phase shows a behavior that is completely different from the behavior observed on the rectangular z’-phase. On the fully

• controlled adsorption and manipulation of metal oxide nanoclusters. Depending on the preparation conditions, different atomically thin and highly ordered titanium oxide films can be formed on the bimetallic alloy surface, offering various templates and bonding options for adsorbates. This approach opens up

Direct observation of the Si(110)-(16×2) surface reconstruction by atomic force microscopy

• Tatsuya Yamamoto,
• Ryo Izumi,
• Kazushi Miki,
• Takahiro Yamasaki,
• Yasuhiro Sugawara and
• Yan Jun Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1750–1756, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.157

• shows an AFM image of a 16×2 reconstruction with sudden protrusions on L-P3 sites (defined in Figure 2a). The direction of fast scan was left to right, and that of slow scan was top to bottom. It can be ruled out that there were adsorbates on L-P3 sites because the pressure was kept below 3 × 10−11 Torr

• sites could no longer be observed. Two consecutive scans of Figure 3a and 3b indicated that these sudden protrusions were not adsorbates on L-P3 sites because they are observed in Figure 3a and not observed in Figure 3b. They can be explained by the fact that the L-P3 atom is pulled by the Si tip

Detecting stable adsorbates of (1S)-camphor on Cu(111) with Bayesian optimization

• Jari Järvi,
• Patrick Rinke and
• Milica Todorović

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1577–1589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.140

• structure of complex molecular adsorbates from microscopy images can be difficult, and using atomistic simulations to find the most stable structures is limited to partial exploration of the potential energy surface due to the high-dimensional phase space. In this study, we present the recently developed

• Bayesian Optimization Structure Search (BOSS) method as an efficient solution for identifying the structure of non-planar adsorbates. We apply BOSS with density-functional theory simulations to detect the stable adsorbate structures of (1S)-camphor on the Cu(111) surface. We identify the optimal structure

• among eight unique types of stable adsorbates, in which camphor chemisorbs via oxygen (global minimum) or physisorbs via hydrocarbons to the Cu(111) surface. This study demonstrates that new cross-disciplinary tools, such as BOSS, facilitate the description of complex surface structures and their

Controlling the electronic and physical coupling on dielectric thin films

• Philipp Hurdax,
• Michael Hollerer,
• Larissa Egger,
• Georg Koller,
• Xiaosheng Yang,
• Anja Haags,
• Serguei Soubatch,
• Frank Stefan Tautz,
• Mathias Richter,
• Alexander Gottwald,
• Peter Puschnig,
• Martin Sterrer and
• Michael G. Ramsey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1492–1503, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.132

• underlying metal [2][3]. As dielectric films can significantly reduce the work function, principally due to Pauli repulsion (pushback) at the metal interface, adsorbates of sufficiently high electron affinity (EA) will become negatively charged via tunneling from the underlying metal. This was predicted by

• Pacchioni et al. [4][5][6] and either inferred or observed for adsorbates ranging from metal atoms [7][8] and small molecules [9][10] to larger π-conjugated molecules [11][12][13]. This phenomenon has been comprehensively analyzed for 5A on epitaxial MgO(100)/Ag(100), in which orbital-resolved STM and

• is only a small reduction of Φ, then the system is in the vacuum level alignment regime and there is no charge transfer. If there is any significant change in Φ, then the system is in the Fermi level pinning regime with equilibrium achieved by a balance between charged and neutral adsorbates in the

Self-assembly and spectroscopic fingerprints of photoactive pyrenyl tectons on hBN/Cu(111)

• Domenik M. Zimmermann,
• Knud Seufert,
• Luka Ðorđević,
• Tobias Hoh,
• Sushobhan Joshi,
• Tomas Marangoni,
• Davide Bonifazi and
• Willi Auwärter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1470–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.130

• , molecule–metal interactions can adversely affect the intrinsic electronic characteristics of molecular adsorbates and quench the optical properties [9][10][11][12][13]. Consequently, recent studies aiming to characterize the relation of adsorption, supramolecular organization, and electronic and optical

• allows the determination of the electronic properties of the pyrene adsorbates by STM and STS", and the comparison with the gaps estimated by theoretical simulations in vacuum and by UV-vis spectroscopies in solution. Remarkably, the electronic states of the pyrene adsorbates near the Fermi level, probed

• of well-defined, narrow molecular resonances and large HOMO–LUMO gaps evidenced a reduction of the electronic molecule–support interactions by the hBN spacer layer, as previously reported for adsorbates on hBN/Cu(111) [28][35][36][37][38] and other hBN/metal supports [18][19][20][79][80]. The dI/dV

Effect of localized helium ion irradiation on the performance of synthetic monolayer MoS₂ field-effect transistors

• Jakub Jadwiszczak,
• Pierce Maguire,
• Conor P. Cullen,
• Georg S. Duesberg and
• Hongzhou Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1329–1335, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.117

• ). Prior to testing, the devices were outgassed at a pressure of approx. 10−5 mbar for 12 h to minimize surface adsorbates. Helium ion irradiations were carried out at a beam energy of 30 keV and He gas pressure of 2 × 10−6 Torr, using a Zeiss Nanofab microscope. The fabricated MoS2 FETs were placed in the

• than half of the channel has been treated with the ion beam. Thus, we expect a dominant contribution of oxygen-containing atmospheric adsorbates (known p-type dopants in MoS2) in saturating the vacancy sites created by the ion beam, allowing for residual hole conduction in the newly formed effective

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• ) [18][19], while Au(111) is characterized by a surface-projected gap of sp-derived electron states [20]. Graphene on Pt(111) exhibits a considerable distance of 330 pm from the metal surface [21], which implies a weak graphene–metal hybridization. Adsorbates on graphene-covered Pt(111) are therefore

Quantitative determination of the interaction potential between two surfaces using frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy

• Nicholas Chan,
• Carrie Lin,
• Tevis Jacobs,
• Robert W. Carpick and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 729–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.60

• holder, transferred into the vacuum chamber, and baked at 120 °C for 1 h to remove any residual adsorbed moisture and other adsorbates on the probe. No tip preparation beyond this was conducted, to ensure that the tip structure remained as similar to the initial images and as small as possible. Before

Adsorptive removal of bulky dye molecules from water with mesoporous polyaniline-derived carbon

• Hyung Jun An,
• Jong Min Park,
• Nazmul Abedin Khan and
• Sung Hwa Jhung

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 597–605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.47

• effective adsorption of small MO or MB since van der Waals interactions rely on adequate matching between pore and adsorbates. On the contrary, bulky dye molecules such as AR1 and JGB can interact effectively with KOH-900 via van der Waals interactions, which relies on the suitable pore size of KOH-900 for

Atomic-resolution imaging of rutile TiO₂(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface by non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Daiki Katsube,
• Shoki Ojima,
• Eiichi Inami and
• Masayuki Abe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 443–449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.35

• -AFM and tunneling current for STM), the surface structure sometimes results in different contrasts in both images. In Figure 3, white squares and circles indicate line defects and protrusions, which are considered to be adsorbates or contamination. A line defect was imaged as a likely vacancy by STM

An advanced structural characterization of templated meso-macroporous carbon monoliths by small- and wide-angle scattering techniques

• Felix M. Badaczewski,
• Marc O. Loeh,
• Torben Pfaff,
• Dirk Wallacher,
• Daniel Clemens and
• Bernd M. Smarsly

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 310–322, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.23

• mesoporosity of these monolithic carbon materials was studied by the sorption behavior of a relatively large organic molecule (p-xylene) in comparison to typical gas adsorbates (Ar). In addition, to obtain a detailed view on the nanopore space small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) combined with in situ

• adsorbates such as nitrogen, argon, krypton or carbon monoxide. We chose p-xylene as an adsorbate for vapour sorption to address the sorption at room temperature. To obtain a detailed view of the nanopore space, which exhibits micro-, meso- and macropores, but with an upper limit of ca. 100 nm, small-angle

Kelvin probe force microscopy work function characterization of transition metal oxide crystals under ongoing reduction and oxidation

• Dominik Wrana,
• Karol Cieślik,
• Wojciech Belza,
• Christian Rodenbücher,
• Krzysztof Szot and
• Franciszek Krok

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1596–1607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.155

• known that water molecules present in the ambient air form a dipole layer, which can give rise to an effective surface potential [49]. To reduce the impact of weakly interacting adsorbates, in the next step, the sample underwent in situ UHV annealing, which implicated a WF decrease of both TiO and

• abundant adsorbates, also mimicking the typical operating temperatures of metal oxide gas sensors [51]. Numerical calculations suggest that H2O and CO2 species present in air saturate almost all free adsorption sites on TiO2-terminated SrTiO3(100) [52]. The low Redhead desorption temperature of H2O (CO2

• ) of 233–283 K (428–523 K) calculated by Baniecki et al. [52] suggests that our surface, which is predominantly TiO2-terminated, is cleaned of those adsorbates after annealing, hence the 0.35 eV difference in the WF. The lower response of TiO to annealing is a hint of the higher adsorption energy of

Imaging the surface potential at the steps on the rutile TiO₂(110) surface by Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Masato Miyazaki,
• Huan Fei Wen,
• Quanzhen Zhang,
• Yuuki Adachi,
• Jan Brndiar,
• Ivan Štich,
• Yan Jun Li and
• Yasuhiro Sugawara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1228–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.122

• and steps are formed. In this image, the bright spots on the surface are adsorbed oxygen species or other adsorbates. The profiles of the average height show that the height of both and steps was about 260 pm, which is smaller than the known height of 325 pm because of the large tip–sample distance

In situ AFM visualization of Li–O₂ battery discharge products during redox cycling in an atmospherically controlled sample cell

• Kumar Virwani,
• Younes Ansari,
• Khanh Nguyen,
• Francisco José Alía Moreno-Ortiz,
• Jangwoo Kim,
• Maxwell J. Giammona,
• Ho-Cheol Kim and
• Young-Hye La

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 930–940, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.94

• deposition [3], corrosion and molecular adsorbates on a variety of surfaces [4] have also been investigated with scanning probe microscopy. In situ local probe techniques at electrical interfaces [5] use scanning probe microscopy to probe surface changes and reactions. A recent review by Yang et al. [6