Scanning transmission imaging in the helium ion microscope using a microchannel plate with a delay line detector

• Eduardo Serralta,
• Nico Klingner,
• Olivier De Castro,
• Michael Mousley,
• Santhana Eswara,
• Serge Duarte Pinto,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Gregor Hlawacek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1854–1864, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.167

• also detect channeling-related contrast on polycrystalline silicon, thallium chloride nanocrystals, and single-crystalline silicon by comparing the signal transmitted at different directions for the same data set. Keywords: bright-field; channeling; dark-field; delay line detector; helium ion

• transmission-channeling contrast using polycrystalline silicon, thallium chloride samples and beam steering in single-crystalline silicon. Experimental The new STIM detector comprises a stack of two MCPs and a resistive anode layer with a delay line readout structure behind it, as represented in Figure 1c. The

• responsible for the observed mismatch. Beam steering and channeling Polycrystalline silicon A 15 nm thick nanoporous polycrystalline silicon membrane (available from Electron Microscopy Sciences, item number: 76042–79) has been investigated using STIM. In Figure 4b–f we present several STIM images, which were

Molecular dynamics modeling of the influence forming process parameters on the structure and morphology of a superconducting spin valve

• Alexander Vakhrushev,
• Aleksey Fedotov,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Roman Morari and
• Anatolie Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1776–1788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.160

• structure of each layer does not form an ideal single crystal, but rather a polycrystalline system is formed. The influence of the interface quality on the spin valve functionality is an especially important issue, which has been experimentally investigated in previous works [16][17][18][19] where the

• nanosystem resulting from the mathematical modeling is presented in Figure 5. Figure 5 clearly demonstrates the niobium and cobalt layered nanosystem formation: the layers formed by niobium and cobalt atoms have a polycrystalline structure. In this case, groups of atoms are combined into domains with

High-responsivity hybrid α-Ag₂S/Si photodetector prepared by pulsed laser ablation in liquid

• Raid A. Ismail,
• Hanan A. Rawdhan and
• Duha S. Ahmed

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1596–1607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.142

• (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and UV–vis spectroscopy. The optical absorption decreased and the optical energy gap of α-Ag2S increased from 1.5 to 2 eV after the CTAB surfactant was added to the Tu solution. XRD studies revealed that the synthesized Ag2S NPs were polycrystalline

Atomic defect classification of the H–Si(100) surface through multi-mode scanning probe microscopy

• Jeremiah Croshaw,
• Thomas Dienel,
• Taleana Huff and
• Robert Wolkow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1346–1360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.119

• . Methods Experiments were performed using an Omicron LT STM and an Omicron qPlus LT AFM [88][89] system operating at 4.5 K and ultrahigh vacuum (3 × 10−11 Torr). STM tips were electrochemically etched from polycrystalline tungsten wire, resistively heated, and field-evaporated to clean and sharpen the apex

Proximity effect in [Nb(1.5 nm)/Fe(x)]₁₀/Nb(50 nm) superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures

• Yury Khaydukov,
• Sabine Pütter,
• Laura Guasco,
• Roman Morari,
• Gideok Kim,
• Thomas Keller,
• Anatolie Sidorenko and
• Bernhard Keimer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1254–1263, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.109

• thickness from 2 to 4 nm improves the film quality. The Fe layer becomes polycrystalline while the Nb layer remains amorphous. In contrast, for sample s6, which was grown on the 30 °C Nb buffer, both layers reveal polycrystallinity with a certain texture (Figure 2e,f). Finally, the Pt cap is always

• polycrystalline (Figure 2b). X-ray diffraction Figure 3a shows the diffraction pattern measured on sample s3. Together with two reflections from the substrate we observed a Nb(200) peak at 2θ = 55°with mosaicity of the same order as the substrate peak. In agreement with the observation by RHEED (Figure 4b) we

• observed that the Nb(200) peak is tilted off-specular by a few degrees, which is a well-known feature of Nb growth on Al2O3() substrates [45][46]. Similar patterns were measured for all samples, except for sample s6, which was grown at room temperature. For this sample we measured a typical polycrystalline

Gas-sensing features of nanostructured tellurium thin films

• Dumitru Tsiulyanu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1010–1018, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.85

• nanostructured (porous) Al2O3 substrates. In both cases, the polycrystalline Te (purity 99.999%) was evaporated under 10−4 Pa vacuum conditions. The evaporation was carried out using VUP-5 equipment (SUMI, Ukraine) from a tantalum boat, keeping the same distance (20 cm) between the evaporation boat and substrate

Epitaxial growth and superconducting properties of thin-film PdFe/VN and VN/PdFe bilayers on MgO(001) substrates

• Wael M. Mohammed,
• Igor V. Yanilkin,
• Amir I. Gumarov,
• Airat G. Kiiamov,
• Roman V. Yusupov and
• Lenar R. Tagirov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 807–813, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.65

• matches that of the palladium-rich Pd1−xFex alloys (face-centered cubic with a0 = 389 pm). Therefore, a good crystallinity of the layer stack can hardly be expected. In the resulting polycrystalline films, crystallite boundaries and crystal lattice imperfections can lead to the segregation of iron

Effect of Ag loading position on the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂ nanocolumn arrays

• Jinghan Xu,
• Yanqi Liu and
• Yan Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 717–728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.59

• nanocolumns conforms to the structural parameters of the AAO template. Figure 4b shows the diffraction pattern of TiO2 nanocolumns. According to diffraction spot analysis, it can be found that the prepared TiO2 has a polycrystalline structure. Figure 4c is a TEM image of the nanopillars of the AFT structure

Structural optical and electrical properties of a transparent conductive ITO/Al–Ag/ITO multilayer contact

• Aliyu Kabiru Isiyaku,
• Ahmad Hadi Ali and
• Nafarizal Nayan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 695–702, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.57

• becomes polycrystalline upon annealing at 400 °C. Strong diffraction peaks of ITO(222), Ag(111) and ITO(440) were observed after annealing. The appearance of diffraction peaks of ITO(222), Ag(111) and Al(200) in the annealed film indicate an enhanced crystallinity of the film. Diffraction peaks of In2O3

Implementation of data-cube pump–probe KPFM on organic solar cells

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Olivier Bardagot and
• Renaud Demadrille

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 323–337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.24

• -processed organic donor–acceptor blends called bulk heterojunctions (BHJ), for polycrystalline direct bandgap semiconductors such as CdTe, CuInxGa(1−x)Se2 and Cu2ZnSnS4 and for hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells. Whatever material used, improving the performance of the solar cell requires a

• compensation potential (or surface potential (SP)) on the frequency modulation (fmod) of an illumination source. The first demonstration of light intensity-modulated KPFM (IM-KPFM) was carried out in 2008 by Takihara et al. on polycrystalline Si solar cells [12], and it has been recently applied to organic [13

Antimony deposition onto Au(111) and insertion of Mg

• Lingxing Zan,
• Da Xing,
• Abdelaziz Ali Abd-El-Latif and
• Helmut Baltruschat

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2541–2552, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.245

• counter electrode and another one as a reference electrode. All the magnesium electrochemical deposition measurements were carried out in a MBraun glovebox (H2O < 0.5 ppm, O2 < 0.5 ppm) in a similar manner as described in [19]. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) A polycrystalline Au electrode with a similar size was

• than that observed by us. We also observed a smaller peak C1 on a polycrystalline Au electrode. Therefore, this difference is probably due to the roughness of the Au(111) surface, resulting from repeated alloying and dealloying during the cycling to obtain stable voltammetry in [12]. Upon extension of

• is similar to the behavior of Mg at a polycrystalline gold electrode [19]. The small peak at 0.1 V (vs Mg) is due to the insertion of Mg into the Sb-adlayer and is not visible in the absence of Sb. The bulk deposition of Mg starts below −0.2 V. During the anodic going sweep, the current is still

Synthesis and acetone sensing properties of ZnFe₂O₄/rGO gas sensors

• Kaidi Wu,
• Yifan Luo,
• Ying Li and
• Chao Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2516–2526, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.242

• selected area diffraction (SAED) pattern shows a series of distinct diffraction rings, which can be readily indexed to the (220), (311), (400), (422), (511) and (440) planes of the spinel ZnFe2O4 crystal, in line with the above XRD results. Moreover, the SAED pattern exhibits the polycrystalline nature of

Semitransparent Sb₂S₃ thin film solar cells by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis for use in solar windows

• Jako S. Eensalu,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Erki Kärber,
• Lothar Weinhardt,
• Monika Blum,
• Clemens Heske,
• Wanli Yang,
• Ilona Oja Acik and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2396–2409, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.230

• composition, these results already give USP a distinct advantage over aqueous CBD, wherein the inclusion of oxygen is inevitable and traceable [57][58][59]. To summarize the thin film characterization, we have fabricated polycrystalline, chlorine-free (below EDX detection limit), and oxygen-free (EDX and XES

Integration of sharp silicon nitride tips into high-speed SU8 cantilevers in a batch fabrication process

• Nahid Hosseini,
• Matthias Neuenschwander,
• Oliver Peric,
• Santiago H. Andany,
• Jonathan D. Adams and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2357–2363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.226

• sharpness, 20 randomly chosen LSNT-tip SU8 cantilevers have been tested with a polycrystalline titanium roughness sample. The images were taken using a NanoScope-V controller and a Multi-Mode-V AFM with a J scanner (Bruker) in tapping mode. The imaging conditions were as follows: scan size 2 µm, number of

• with one of the LSNT-tip SU8 cantilevers. To evaluate the tip sharpness, the blind tip estimation algorithm [33] as implemented in the Gwyddion program [34][35] has been used. The blind tip estimation algorithm is used to estimate the sharpness of the tip from the image of a polycrystalline titanium

• imaging of the polycrystalline titanium roughness sample (tapping mode, scan size 2 µm, 512 × 512 pixels and scan rate 1 Hz). Figure 2b shows the partial blind estimation of the tip shape for the first and last images after 16 mm tip travel. No obvious degradation occurred. Figure 2c shows the evolution

Ultrathin Ni_1−xCo_xS₂ nanoflakes as high energy density electrode materials for asymmetric supercapacitors

• Xiaoxiang Wang,
• Teng Wang,
• Rusen Zhou,
• Lijuan Fan,
• Shengli Zhang,
• Feng Yu,
• Tuquabo Tesfamichael,
• Liwei Su and
• Hongxia Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2207–2216, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.213

• ). Moreover, the polycrystalline nature of the synthesized Ni–Co sulfides was revealed by the selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern (Figure 1g, inset), the diffraction pattern can be readily indexed to the (002), (021), (112), (113) and (132) planes of Ni1−xCoxS2. The diffraction pattern is

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond for nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging applications

• Alberto Boretti,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Jonathan Blackledge and
• Stefania Castelletto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2128–2151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.207

Oblique angle deposition of nickel thin films by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

• Hamidreza Hajihoseini,
• Movaffaq Kateb,
• Snorri Þorgeir Ingvarsson and
• Jon Tomas Gudmundsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1914–1921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.186

• unique properties in ferromagnetic thin films. Earlier we have explored the properties of polycrystalline and epitaxially deposited permalloy thin films deposited under 35° tilt using HiPIMS and compared it with films deposited by dc magnetron sputtering (dcMS). The films prepared by HiPIMS present lower

• anisotropy and coercivity fields than films deposited with dcMS. For the epitaxial films dcMS deposition gives biaxial anisotropy while HiPIMS deposition gives a well-defined uniaxial anisotropy. Results: We report on the deposition of 50 nm polycrystalline nickel thin films by dcMS and HiPIMS while the tilt

• deposition flux (i.e., using HiPIMS in GLAD), the angular distribution of the deposited material can be influenced [40][41][42]. Earlier we have explored the microstructure and magnetic properties of polycrystalline [43] and epitaxially [44] deposited permalloy (Ni80Fe20 atom %) thin films deposited under 35

Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• such that the Si substrate spots together with the ring spots of the SiGe polycrystalline layer were measured. A description of this analysis is given in our previous work [23]. The bright spots are due to Si substrate and the smaller and less bright spots are due to SiGe NCs. The white circular cloud

Stationary beam full-field transmission helium ion microscopy using sub-50 keV He⁺: Projected images and intensity patterns

• Michael Mousley,
• Santhana Eswara,
• Olivier De Castro,
• Olivier Bouton,
• Nico Klingner,
• Christoph T. Koch,
• Gregor Hlawacek and
• Tom Wirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1648–1657, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.160

• MgO deflection pattern. Supporting Information File 112: Description of supporting videos 1 and 2, SIMION results and methods (defocus and size on sample plane), a defocus series for a polycrystalline silicon sample, a magnification of images showing distortion of grid squares and a photograph of the

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

• pristine TiO crystal. To date, the only values for the TiO WF come from polycrystalline samples (films, nanoparticles) and from the laterally averaging method of UPS, thus this cannot be reasonably compared with our findings. The WF value obtained for the reduced SrTiO3(100) surface of 3.12(18) eV follows

High-temperature resistive gas sensors based on ZnO/SiC nanocomposites

• Vadim B. Platonov,
• Marina N. Rumyantseva,
• Alexander S. Frolov,
• Alexey D. Yapryntsev and
• Alexander M. Gaskov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1537–1547, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.151

• pore diameter of 30 nm (Figure 2f). The polymeric fibers containing zinc acetate (Figure 2b) are cylindrical wires about 500 nm in diameter. The ZnO nanofibers obtained after annealing (Figure 2d) consist of polycrystalline wires with an average diameter of 150 nm formed by nanocrystals about 20–30 nm

Rapid thermal annealing for high-quality ITO thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

• Petronela Prepelita,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Doina Craciun,
• Florin Garoi,
• Catalin Negrila,
• Beatrice Gabriela Sbarcea and
• Valentin Craciun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1511–1522, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.149

• deposition thickness or the RTA process. X-ray diffraction investigations revealed a cubic nanocrystalline structure for the as-deposited ITO films. After RTA, polycrystalline compounds with a textured (222) plane were observed. X-ray photon spectroscopy was used to confirm the beneficial effect of the RTA

• temperature used during RTA, the films became polycrystalline. An increase of the peak intensity with the increase in film thickness to 370 nm can also be noticed (Figure 2), as well as a structural reorientation (decrease of the main peak intensity and the appearance of other peaks in the film structure

• transitions, we plotted and studied the transmission spectra of the ITO thin films (Figure 5). These polycrystalline thin films show considerable promise for integration into photovoltaic structures, having the bandgap width close to the optimum value of 3.7 eV [39]. Following the RTA process, the ITO thin

Kelvin probe force microscopy of the nanoscale electrical surface potential barrier of metal/semiconductor interfaces in ambient atmosphere

• Petr Knotek,
• Tomáš Plecháček,
• Jan Smolík,
• Petr Kutálek,
• Filip Dvořák,
• Milan Vlček,
• Jiří Navrátil and
• Čestmír Drašar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1401–1411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.138

• been observed for Si [51][52], Ti, Ni or Al [53][54][55], carbon [56] and organic–inorganic compounds [57]. We suggest, in our case, that OH− or O−/O2− ions diffuse through our polycrystalline Au layer with many defects (grain boundaries, dislocations) forced by the strong electric field (8 V/53 nm of

• Figure 3) as a reminiscence of the diffusion limitation of oxygen/hydroxy anions due to the electric field through the polycrystalline Au layer. Bare Bi2Se3 had no diffusion limits and the I–V curves are not measurable as electrons immediately form isolating BiOx on the surface. The abovementioned facts

Gas sensing properties of individual SnO₂ nanowires and SnO₂ sol–gel nanocomposites

• Alexey V. Shaposhnik,
• Dmitry A. Shaposhnik,
• Sergey Yu. Turishchev,
• Olga A. Chuvenkova,
• Stanislav V. Ryabtsev,
• Alexey A. Vasiliev,
• Xavier Vilanova,
• Francisco Hernandez-Ramirez and
• Joan R. Morante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1380–1390, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.136

• intensity of the 533.6 eV component (Figure 6) of the O 1s line [51]. Previously, this component was observed on polycrystalline nanolayers formed by magnetron sputtering of tin and ambient air oxidation afterwards [47]. Figure 7 compares XANES Sn M4,5 spectra of the samples with those obtained on the SnO2

Nanoscale spatial mapping of mechanical properties through dynamic atomic force microscopy

• Zahra Abooalizadeh,
• Leszek Josef Sudak and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1332–1347, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.132

• of the sample of unknown modulus, is the effective elastic modulus of the calibration sample, αtest is the normalized contact stiffness of the unknown sample, and αcal is the normalized contact stiffness of the calibration sample. The calibration sample in these calculations was a polycrystalline Nb

• glass sample. The reported modulus for polycrystalline Nb is = 125 GPa and the normalized contact stiffness is αcal = 80 [14]. Finally, once the effective elastic modulus of the HOPG sample was determined, the elastic modulus of the HOPG sample was generated using the following equation: where the Et

• uncovered and covered HOPG step edges. The calibration sample was a polycrystalline Nb glass, which also has very little viscoelasticity, similar to the HOPG sample. As indicated in Figure 10, the calculated elastic modulus using the Kelvin–Voigt model resulted in an elastic modulus of about 2 GPa for the