Electrical and optical enhancement of ITO/Mo bilayer thin films via laser annealing

• Abdelbaki Hacini,
• Ahmad Hadi Ali,
• Nurul Nadia Adnan and
• Nafarizal Nayan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1589–1595, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.133

• . Experimental IM bilayer thin films were sputtered on n-type silicon(111) substrates for structural, morphological, and electrical characterization. In addition, the bilayer thin films were deposited on glass substrates for optical characterization. This process was performed using RF magnetron sputtering

• (Quorum Q300T D) at 10−4 mbar pressure. The magnetron sputter contains a double target with high purity (approx. 99.99%). The first target is for sputtering ITO (90 wt % In2O3 and 10 wt % SnO2), and the second target is for sputtering Mo. Before deposition, the Si and the glass samples were cut into

• sputtering and, subsequently, investigated. The films were annealed using a Nd:YAG pulsed laser with different energies. The inclusion of thin Mo films and annealing at 120 mJ improved the structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties. The XRD results show a good crystallinity for the

Microneedle-based ocular drug delivery systems – recent advances and challenges

• Piotr Gadziński,
• Anna Froelich,
• Monika Wojtyłko,
• Antoni Białek,
• Julia Krysztofiak and
• Tomasz Osmałek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1167–1184, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.98

• photoresistant layer. The wafer is then etched. A distinction can be made between wet and dry etching. The wet etching process uses a potassium hydroxide solution, while dry etching includes the physical methods ion milling and sputtering and the chemical method high-pressure plasma [156]. Lithographic

Effects of focused electron beam irradiation parameters on direct nanostructure formation on Ag surfaces

• Jānis Sniķeris,
• Vjačeslavs Gerbreders,
• Andrejs Bulanovs and
• Ēriks Sļedevskis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1004–1010, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.87

• surfaces undergoing irradiation by a focused electron beam. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; electron beam; lithography; nanostructure; silver; sputtering; surface; Introduction Metallic nanostructures have various uses, including in nano-electro-mechanical systems [1], plasmonic biosensors [2], and

• parameters (beam current, focusing, angle of incidence, and amount of hydrocarbons) affects the growth of nanostructures on Ag surfaces undergoing irradiation by focused EB in point mode. Experimental The samples were prepared by sputtering 500 nm thick Ag layers on Si(111) substrates via direct current (DC

• ) magnetron sputtering. The samples were fixed to the SEM stub with colloidal Ag paint. The surface of the samples was irradiated with a focused EB with controlled parameters in point mode using a Tescan MAIA3 SEM (Figure 1a). Several samples were irradiated, each time one of the irradiation parameters was

Influence of water contamination on the sputtering of silicon with low-energy argon ions investigated by molecular dynamics simulations

• Grégoire R. N. Defoort-Levkov,
• Alan Bahm and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 986–1003, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.86

• by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations how one of the most commonly found residual contaminations in vacuum chambers (i.e., water adsorbed on a silicon surface) influences sputtering by 100 eV argon ions. The incidence angle was changed from normal incidence to close to grazing incidence. For the

• simulation conditions used in this work, the adsorption of water favours the formation of defects in silicon by mixing hydrogen and oxygen atoms into the substrate. The sputtering yield of silicon is not significantly changed by the contamination, but the fraction of hydrogen and oxygen atoms that is

• depth. Investigations performed with low-energy argon ions [15][19][20] have shown that the current model describing the sputter yields and the sputtering processes (such as sputtering threshold and the amorphization process) does not fit with experimental data, leading to discrepancies that cannot be

Temperature and chemical effects on the interfacial energy between a Ga–In–Sn eutectic liquid alloy and nanoscopic asperities

• Yujin Han,
• Pierre-Marie Thebault,
• Corentin Audes,
• Xuelin Wang,
• Haiwoong Park,
• Jian-Zhong Jiang and
• Arnaud Caron

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 817–827, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.72

• 1s orbital of carbon. We attribute these contributions (CO32−, C–C/C–H, and C–O) to contamination from the ambient. As mentioned above, we performed the XPS measurements on these liquid samples without prior Ar+-ion sputtering or further heating inside the vacuum chamber of the XPS instrument. Given

Optimizing PMMA solutions to suppress contamination in the transfer of CVD graphene for batch production

• Chun-Da Liao,
• Andrea Capasso,
• Tiago Queirós,
• Telma Domingues,
• Fatima Cerqueira,
• Nicoleta Nicoara,
• Jérôme Borme,
• Paulo Freitas and
• Pedro Alpuim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 796–806, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.70

• : C4 PMMA; Wafer 2: B2 PMMA). Both wafers started with the patterning of Cr/Au contacts (deposited by magnetron sputtering) using direct-write laser lithography and ion milling. The fabrication of the two wafers followed slightly different steps, as described below. Wafer 1: A stopping layer (Al2O3

• /TiWN/AlSiCu/TiWN) was patterned by lift-off, followed by the CVD growth of a multi-stack layer of SiO2 and Si3N4 to passivate the current lines. After this, a thin Al2O3 layer was deposited by sputtering and patterned by wet etching to protect the gate during the graphene etch. The C4 PMMA/graphene

Direct measurement of surface photovoltage by AC bias Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Masato Miyazaki,
• Yasuhiro Sugawara and
• Yan Jun Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 712–720, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.63

• . The tip was cleaned by Ar+ sputtering (0.8 keV, 5 × 10−7 Torr, 5 min) to remove the contaminants and the native oxide layer. We used a rutile TiO2(110) sample to demonstrate the AC-KPFM. TiO2 is one of the promising photocatalytic materials [38][39][40] and has been widely studied using AFM and KPFM

• [41][42][43][44]. Rutile TiO2 has a bandgap of 3.0 eV [45] and shows the SPV under UV illumination [46][47][48]. A clean rutile TiO2(110) surface (Crystal Base) was prepared by several cycles of Ar+ sputtering (1 keV, 1 × 10−6 Torr, 15 min) and annealing (993 K, less than 2 × 10−10 Torr, 30 min

Influence of thickness and morphology of MoS₂ on the performance of counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells

• Lam Thuy Thi Mai,
• Hai Viet Le,
• Ngan Kim Thi Nguyen,
• Van La Tran Pham,
• Thu Anh Thi Nguyen,
• Nguyen Thanh Le Huynh and
• Hoang Thai Nguyen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 528–537, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.44

• investigated using various techniques such as chemical bath deposition [1], sputtering [2], hydrothermal synthesis [10][11][12][13], wet chemistry [14], thermal reduction [15], and electrodeposition (ED) [20]. Among these methods, ED shows many advances thank to its simplicity and rapidity. Additionally, it

Zinc oxide nanostructures for fluorescence and Raman signal enhancement: a review

• Ioana Marica,
• Fran Nekvapil,
• Maria Ștefan,
• Cosmin Farcău and
• Alexandra Falamaș

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 472–490, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.40

• ordered hybrid nanostructured substrates, ranging from more expensive and laborious ones, such as pulsed laser deposition or hydrothermal growth, followed by sputtering processes [31] or electron beam lithography to more cost-efficient and simple ones, such as photochemical deposition of metallic NPs or a

• metallic layer [32], chemical synthesis [33], or nanosphere lithography. Usually, ZnO nanostructures are fabricated first, followed by the decoration with metallic nanostructures or a metallic layer, which is added by physical vapour deposition, including sputtering processes [6][34], ion sputtering, which

• allowed for the decoration of vertically aligned cone-shaped ZnO nanorods with Ag NPs on their sides and their top ends [35], and magnetron sputtering [7][36]. Electron beam evaporation of, for example, a 30 nm Au layer on ZnO nanopillars arrays [37] or of ZnO-elevated Au dimer nanostructures (Figure 2a,b

Investigation of electron-induced cross-linking of self-assembled monolayers by scanning tunneling microscopy

• Patrick Stohmann,
• Sascha Koch,
• Yang Yang,
• Christopher David Kaiser,
• Julian Ehrens,
• Jürgen Schnack,
• Niklas Biere,
• Dario Anselmetti,
• Armin Gölzhäuser and
• Xianghui Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 462–471, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.39

• Au(111) surface was prepared by argon sputtering for 10 min at 1 keV with a pressure of 3 × 10−6 mbar. Secondly, the treated substrate was annealed at 673 K for 1 h in order to obtain a flat substrate surface characterized by large gold terraces. When required, successive sputtering/annealing cycles

• were performed. Immediately after sputtering, the gold substrate was exposed to the molecular beam from a quartz crucible inside a Knudsen-type organic evaporator (TCE-BSC, Kentax). The crucible was filled with TPT crystals previously purified by sublimation. The sublimation temperature was set to 398

Selected properties of Al_xZn_yO thin films prepared by reactive pulsed magnetron sputtering using a two-element Zn/Al target

• Witold Posadowski,
• Artur Wiatrowski,
• Jarosław Domaradzki and
• Michał Mazur

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 344–354, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.29

• magnetron sputtering. A two-element Zn/Al planar target was used as source material prepared in the form of a Zn disc (100 mm diameter) with Al rings pressed into its surface. The sputtering processes were carried out in a mixture of argon and oxygen. The films were deposited with a discharge power of PE

• : aluminium zinc oxide; magnetron sputtering; thin film; transparent conducting oxide; transparent electronics; Introduction Aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is a potential alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO) for transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes in transparent electronic and photovoltaic

• are strongly desired. Magnetron sputtering is one of the most widely used methods for obtaining thin films with different properties for different purposes and is one of the most commonly used methods for industrial production. However, the manufacturing of AZO thin films is a challenge and requires

A broadband detector based on series YBCO grain boundary Josephson junctions

• Egor I. Glushkov,
• Alexander V. Chiginev,
• Leonid S. Kuzmin and
• Leonid S. Revin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 325–333, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.27

• technology of YBaCuO magnetron sputtering on a bicrystal substrate for a temperature of 77 K, a NEP in the region of can be obtained. It is possible to improve the match between the Josephson junction chain and the antenna of the receiving system by reducing the size of the JJs and the meander-type

Investigation of a memory effect in a Au/(Ti–Cu)Ox-gradient thin film/TiAlV structure

• Damian Wojcieszak,
• Jarosław Domaradzki,
• Michał Mazur,
• Tomasz Kotwica and
• Danuta Kaczmarek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 265–273, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.21

• analysis of resistive switching properties observed in a Au/(Ti–Cu)Ox/TiAlV structure with a gradient distribution of Cu and Ti along the (Ti–Cu)Ox thin film thickness. Thin films were prepared via multisource reactive magnetron co-sputtering. The programmed profile of the pulse width modulation

• coefficient during sputtering of the Cu target allowed us to obtain the designed gradient U-shape profile of the Cu concentration in the deposited thin film. Electrical measurements of the Au/(Ti–Cu)Ox/TiAlV structure showed the presence of nonpinched hysteresis loops in the voltage–current plane testifying a

• investigations allowed us to conclude about the possible mechanism for the observed resistive switching mechanism. Keywords: gradient thin film; magnetron sputtering; memory effect; resistive switching; Introduction In recent years, significant development has been observed in design, simulation, manufacturing

Influence of magnetic domain walls on all-optical magnetic toggle switching in a ferrimagnetic GdFe film

• Rahil Hosseinifar,
• Evangelos Golias,
• Ivar Kumberg,
• Quentin Guillet,
• Karl Frischmuth,
• Sangeeta Thakur,
• Mario Fix,
• Manfred Albrecht,
• Florian Kronast and
• Wolfgang Kuch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 74–81, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.5

• thickness, deposited at room temperature using magnetron sputtering (base pressure <10−8 mbar) from elemental targets. The Ar sputter pressure was kept constant at 3.5 × 10−3 mbar during the deposition process. The film was prepared with 5 nm Pt as a seed layer on a Si(100) substrate with a 100 nm thick

Sputtering onto liquids: a critical review

• Anastasiya Sergievskaya,
• Adrien Chauvin and
• Stephanos Konstantinidis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 10–53, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.2

• , Czech Republic 10.3762/bjnano.13.2 Abstract Sputter deposition of atoms onto liquid substrates aims at producing colloidal dispersions of small monodisperse ultrapure nanoparticles (NPs). Since sputtering onto liquids combines the advantages of the physical vapor deposition technique and classical

• reported data; we will address the influence of the sputtering parameters (sputter power, current, voltage, sputter time, working gas pressure, and the type of sputtering plasma) and host liquid properties (composition, temperature, viscosity, and surface tension) on the NP formation as well as a detailed

• overview of the properties and applications of the produced NPs. Keywords: low-pressure plasmas; magnetron; nanoparticles; nanoparticle formation; sputtering; sputtering onto liquids; Introduction According to the general terminology, nanoparticles (NPs) are objects that have a size of less than 100 nm

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

• Sample preparation The Pb(111) single crystal, purchased from Mateck GmbH, was cleaned by several sputtering and annealing cycles in ultra-high vacuum (UHV). CO dosing on the cold substrate was done in the microscope chamber by increasing the pressure via a leak valve up to p ≈ 1 × 10−7 mbar for one

• ) and Pb(110) Figure 1 shows STM images of CO molecules adsorbed on Pb(111). With a lattice parameter of aPb = 4.95 Å, the height of monoatomic steps of the Pb(111) surface is expected to be hPb = = 2.85 Å. Experimentally, a pristine Pb(111) sample (Figure 1a) shows, after sputtering and annealing

• nm with an apparent depression of 0.14 Å. They result from the interference of bulk electrons with trapped subsurface Ar gas bubbles after sputtering [52][53]. After CO dosing in the microscope chamber (see section “Sample preparation”), a coverage of 0.1–0.2 monolayers is expected to adsorb on the

Chemical vapor deposition of germanium-rich CrGe_x nanowires

• Vladislav Dřínek,
• Stanislav Tiagulskyi,
• Roman Yatskiv,
• Jan Grym,
• Radek Fajgar,
• Věra Jandová,
• Martin Koštejn and
• Jaroslav Kupčík

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1365–1371, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.100

• species, Ar+ ion sputtering was used. The initial atomic elemental ratio was [Cr]/[Ge]/[O] = 1:7.33:11.61; after 90 s of Ar+ ion sputtering the ratio was [Cr]/[Ge]/[O] = 1:4.41:2.43. The presence of oxygen indicated oxidation after the experiment. The [Cr]/[Ge] atomic elemental ratio of 1:4.41 was

• 5.0 × 10−7 Pa) was used with a polychromatic Mg X-ray source (Mg Kα, 1253.4 eV). A standard superficial surface sputtering with Ar+ ions was applied using 1 kV of acceleration voltage. The Shirley background was subtracted for all spectra. The morphology of each sample was analyzed by a scanning

• (b) the Cr 2p3/2 region after 90 s of Ar+ ion sputtering. (a) I–V characteristics of the nanowire–deposit system; (b) SEM image of a contacted single CrGex nanowire before the resistivity measurement. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 94: Analysis of CrGex nanowires, experimental

Nonmonotonous temperature dependence of Shapiro steps in YBCO grain boundary junctions

• Leonid S. Revin,
• Dmitriy V. Masterov,
• Alexey E. Parafin,
• Sergey A. Pavlov and
• Andrey L. Pankratov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1279–1285, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.95

• discussed, and the measurement results are compared with the results of numerical calculations. Experimental Setup and Numerical Model The samples of grain boundary Josephson junctions were fabricated by on-axis dc magnetron sputtering [28][29][30][31] of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) film on the surface of 24°[001

Plasmon-enhanced photoluminescence from TiO₂ and TeO₂ thin films doped by Eu³⁺ for optoelectronic applications

• Marcin Łapiński,
• Jakub Czubek,
• Katarzyna Drozdowska,
• Anna Synak,
• Wojciech Sadowski and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1271–1278, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.94

• thermal annealing of the gold thin film. Thermal dewetting of gold film results in spherical gold nanostructures with average dimensions of 50 nm. Both, luminescent TiO2:Eu and TeO2:Eu films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering from mosaic targets. The morphology of the gold nanostructures was

• ethanol and dried at 50 °C. Plasmonic nanostructures were prepared by thermal dewetting of gold thin films. Thin Au films with a thickness of 2.8 nm were deposited using a tabletop DC magnetron sputtering coater (EM SCD 500, Leica) in pure Ar plasma (argon, Air Products, 99.999%) at a pressure of 0.2 Pa

• was conducted at 200 °C. The second kind of dielectric layer was TiO2. It was prepared by radio frequency (RF) reactive magnetron sputtering using an Omicron Nanotechnology four targets sputter system. A Ti target (99.9%) was sputtered in an argon–oxygen atmosphere (Ar/O2 flow ratio: 5 sccm:30 sccm

Is the Ne operation of the helium ion microscope suitable for electron backscatter diffraction sample preparation?

• Annalena Wolff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 965–983, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.73

• interaction types is illustrated in Figure 1. The ions, irrespective of the ion species, interact with the sample atoms via nuclear and electronic interactions. The electronic interactions lead to secondary electron emission and polymerization while the nuclear interactions lead to sputtering, sample atom

• ideal candidate for sputtering applications. Neon interacts almost equally via electronic and nuclear interactions at those energies and allows for fast material removal per incident ion. As an inert ion species, neon has been proven advantageous for processing semiconducting materials in which Ga

• induces sample alterations and material behavior changes due to doping [22]. Not all nuclear interactions lead to sputtering. If the sample atom cannot be removed from the sample because of insufficient energy transfer or because the sample atom cannot exit the sample due to its sub-surface position

Uniform arrays of gold nanoelectrodes with tuneable recess depth

• Elena O. Gordeeva,
• Ilya V. Roslyakov,
• Alexey P. Leontiev,
• Alexey A. Klimenko and
• Kirill S. Napolskii

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 957–964, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.72

• deposited by magnetron sputtering onto the bottom side of the AAO template. Electrodeposition of metals into channels of the AAO template was performed in a three-electrode cell with an electrodeposition area of 0.2 cm2 and a volume of 50 mL at room temperature in a potentiostatic mode. A platinum ring

In situ transport characterization of magnetic states in Nb/Co superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures

• Olena M. Kapran,
• Roman Morari,
• Taras Golod,
• Evgenii A. Borodianskyi,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Andrei Prepelita,
• Nikolay Klenov,
• Anatoli S. Sidorenko and
• Vladimir M. Krasnov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 913–923, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.68

• layers composing a single pseudo spin valve. A more complex S2, Nb(50 nm)/[Co(1.5 nm)/Nb(6 nm)/Co(2.5 nm)/Nb(6 mn)]3Co(1.5 nm)/Nb(6 nm)/Si (the structure in square brackets is repeated three times) has five Co layers. MLs are deposited by magnetron sputtering in a single deposition cycle without breaking

9.1% efficient zinc oxide/silicon solar cells on a 50 μm thick Si absorber

• Rafal Pietruszka,
• Bartlomiej S. Witkowski,
• Monika Ozga,
• Katarzyna Gwozdz,
• Ewa Placzek-Popko and
• Marek Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 766–774, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.60

• environmentally friendly solar cells are cells based on zinc oxide (ZnO). ZnO thin films can be obtained using many technologies, including molecular beam epitaxy, RF magnetron sputtering, pulsed laser deposition, chemical vapor deposition, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) [3]. ALD attracts the attention of many

• deposited as a low-resistivity ohmic contact via sputtering. To improve the contact parameters, the samples were annealed at 500 °C for 5 min in argon atmosphere via rapid thermal processing. Si/Al substrates were prepared in two different ways, A and B. On the surface of sample A, zinc oxide nanorods

• hole of 0.1 cm in diameter was placed on the samples. Then, Al was deposited on top via sputtering. The simple point contact was used on top of the structure. To improve the light collection from full-size ZnO/Si SCs, grid-like contacts should be used. The resulting solar cell structures are shown in

Recent progress in actuation technologies of micro/nanorobots

• Ke Xu and
• Bing Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 756–765, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.59

• sputtering, and the actuation mechanism of the robot is self-electrophoretic. Because the shape of the micro/nanorobot was different, the Z-shaped micro/nanorobot can use two opposite forces on different sides to actuate rotation. In addition, new research has found that the measured actuation force is of

A review of defect engineering, ion implantation, and nanofabrication using the helium ion microscope

• Frances I. Allen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 633–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.52

• with neon, sputtering at higher rates is made possible while retaining a small probe size. This has also opened the door to in situ materials analysis in the HIM using secondary ion mass spectrometry [8]. Further forms of materials analysis using the HIM include techniques based on the collection of

• irradiation effects, such as defect formation and ion implantation, are used to locally change the properties of the material, and at higher doses, nanofabrication is performed using localized material removal (by sputtering) or addition (by gas-assisted deposition). Sometimes, lower-dose irradiation effects

• depth in the material (see Figure 1b). This means that defect creation, implantation, sputtering, and deposition can all be very localized. Correspondingly, the secondary electrons that are generated (escape depth of a few nanometers) emanate from an area not that much larger than the original impact