Nano-contact microscopy of supracrystals

• Adam Sweetman,
• Nicolas Goubet,
• Ioannis Lekkas,
• Marie Paule Pileni and
• Philip Moriarty

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1229–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.126

• paper, the tip was held at ground potential and the sample was biased. To help stabilise the imaging conditions, a custom-built atom tracking system [37] was used to apply feed-forward correction to reduce the effect of thermal drift and piezo-electric creep. To measure the site-specific force between

• . We also note that, due to instrumental drift and creep, the Δz values are likely to be systematically underestimated. (A) Overview dSTM showing nanocrystal assembly, Vgap = +2 V, = 20 pA. (B) DFM image acquired in the region shown in A. Vgap = 0 V, Δf = −2.3 Hz, A0 = 0.11 nm. (C) Constant height Δf

Closed-loop conductance scanning tunneling spectroscopy: demonstrating the equivalence to the open-loop alternative

• Chris Hellenthal,
• Kai Sotthewes,
• Martin H. Siekman,
• E. Stefan Kooij and
• Harold J. W. Zandvliet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1116–1124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.113

• preamplifier at a fixed gain of 108 V·A−1 and were performed within a short timeframe to minimize the effects of drift and possible changes to the tip or sample. Experimental parameters were chosen to prevent changes in tip–sample distance between experiments. As such, z(V) measurements were performed at a

High sensitivity and high resolution element 3D analysis by a combined SIMS–SPM instrument

• Yves Fleming and
• Tom Wirtz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1091–1099, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.110

• topographies are taken as reference maps for linearly extrapolating the z-position of each of the intermittent SIMS recorded voxels. SARINA was developed as a plugin for the ImageJ software [13]. The drift correction of the different recorded SIMS stacks were performed using the OpenMIMS software [14], which

Automatic morphological characterization of nanobubbles with a novel image segmentation method and its application in the study of nanobubble coalescence

• Yuliang Wang,
• Huimin Wang,
• Shusheng Bi and
• Bin Guo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 952–963, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.98

• the image of the PS surface immersed in DI water. The entire surface is covered with spherical cap-like domains, which are identified as NBs [6]. The Rrms is 2.8 nm, which is a value much larger than that obtained in air. Due to the mechanical instrumentation drift [42] that occurs during imaging, the

Pt- and Pd-decorated MWCNTs for vapour and gas detection at room temperature

• Hamdi Baccar,
• Atef Thamri,
• Pierrick Clément,
• Eduard Llobet and
• Adnane Abdelghani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 919–927, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.95

• molecules to the metal nanoparticle–carbon nanotube system is rather strong, since the full recovery of the baseline resistance of the sensors is not reached, and a significant drift appears in the successive detection/recovery events shown in Figure 6. Nitrogen dioxide strongly binds to the surface of

Stiffness of sphere–plate contacts at MHz frequencies: dependence on normal load, oscillation amplitude, and ambient medium

• Jana Vlachová,
• Rebekka König and
• Diethelm Johannsmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 845–856, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.87

• experimental error. In particular, there were no systematic differences between increasing and decreasing ramps. Occasionally, a slow drift was superimposed onto the ramps. Quartz resonators respond to changes in temperature and static stress with slow drifts. Drifts can be reduced by mounting the crystals in

Capillary and van der Waals interactions on CaF₂ crystals from amplitude modulation AFM force reconstruction profiles under ambient conditions

• Annalisa Calò,
• Oriol Vidal Robles,
• Sergio Santos and
• Albert Verdaguer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 809–819, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.84

• relative to the drive force, and Q is the quality factor due to dissipation with the medium. The experimental APD curves cover the approach and the retract part during one cycle, with a drift smaller than 0.5 nm (see Supporting Information File 1, Figure S1). Only approach curves for which the cantilever

A versatile strategy towards non-covalent functionalization of graphene by surface-confined supramolecular self-assembly of Janus tectons

• Ping Du,
• David Bléger,
• Fabrice Charra,
• Vincent Bouchiat,
• David Kreher,
• Fabrice Mathevet and
• André-Jean Attias

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 632–639, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.64

• strategy and expected organization on C(sp2)-carbon-based supports of the self-assembled Janus tectons, exposing a wide range of external interfacial compositions. Self-assembly of a Janus tecton precursor (JAP) and the Janus tectons (JA). Drift-corrected STM images obtained at the interface between HOPG

• illustrate the agreement between all Janus tecton lattices. Figure adapted with permission from [25], copyright 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. Self-assembly on graphene. Drift-corrected STM images obtained in air on a monolayer graphene substrate grown by chemical vapor deposition on a polycrystalline

A scanning probe microscope for magnetoresistive cantilevers utilizing a nested scanner design for large-area scans

• Tobias Meier,
• Alexander Förste,
• Ali Tavassolizadeh,
• Karsten Rott,
• Dirk Meyners,
• Roland Gröger,
• Günter Reiss,
• Eckhard Quandt,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 451–461, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.46

• scanner, the stability of the large-area scanner has to be high. The positioning accuracy can be tested during AFM scanning. If scanned with the open-loop scanner, also the stability and drift of the large-area scanner is of interest. In Figure 2a, a scan of polymeric microlenses is shown when using the

• error was extracted. The data shows no drift of the stage during the whole experiment and only small fluctuations around the desired position of ±10 nm, which is a low value for a scan stage that has a maximum travel distance of 800 μm. As the large-area scanner is mechanically stable, it can be used to

• very low thermal drift of the setup, no further image processing was necessary. The choice of color table allows for a clear distinction of the different layers of which the circuit is comprised. This shows that also the height scale measured by the AFM is constant over the whole large scan area, a key

Carrier multiplication in silicon nanocrystals: ab initio results

• Ivan Marri,
• Marco Govoni and
• Stefano Ossicini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 343–352, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.33

• , some changes emerge in the plot of the CM lifetimes (Figure 3a). As a result of the improved NC–NC interaction, we observe the drift of some points toward reduced lifetimes. Such changes essentially concern the portion of the plot delimited by the energies and (i.e., the CM energy threshold of the

The effect of surface charge on nonspecific uptake and cytotoxicity of CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots

• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Anna Pietuch,
• Marco Tarantola,
• Thomas Basché and
• Andreas Janshoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 281–292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.26

• previously attributed to the detaching and reattaching of kinesin molecules to microtubules [38]. We also observe back-and-forth motion along the same trajectories with similar velocities for both directions, implying that the QDs did not drift back during those phases, but were actively pulled (Figure 6a–c

Kelvin probe force microscopy in liquid using electrochemical force microscopy

• Liam Collins,
• Stephen Jesse,
• Jason I. Kilpatrick,
• Alexander Tselev,
• M. Baris Okatan,
• Sergei V. Kalinin and
• Brian J. Rodriguez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 201–214, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.19

• changes in probe–sample geometry due to drift in the probe–sample separation during the measurement. These results validate the implementation of KPFM in decane [39]. Since the decane acts like a near-perfect lossless dielectric between probe and sample, the dynamic response is purely capacitive and can

• long range and that any changes in separation due to drift were small compared to the tip–sample distance. Measurements in Figures 1–3 were performed using a multifrequency lock in amplifier (Zurich Instruments, HF2LI) having a built in electronic adder and Figures 4–7 were performed using two lock-in

Advanced atomic force microscopy techniques II

• Thilo Glatzel,
• Ricardo Garcia and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2326–2327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.241

• with real parameters [22]. Furthermore, technical contributions discuss the impact of thermal frequency drift of quartz-based force sensors at low temperatures to the accuracy of the force measurements [23] and the trade-offs in sensitivity and sampling depth in bimodal and trimodal AFM [24]. The

Advances in NO₂ sensing with individual single-walled carbon nanotube transistors

• Kiran Chikkadi,
• Matthias Muoth,
• Cosmin Roman,
• Miroslav Haluska and
• Christofer Hierold

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2179–2191, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.227

• of charge traps have reduced the hysteresis, drift and low-frequency noise in carbon nanotube transistors. While open challenges such as large-scale fabrication, selectivity tuning and noise reduction still remain, these results demonstrate considerable progress in transforming the promise of carbon

• charges and dipoles on the nanotube carrier transport, which constitutes the major challenge for the stability, resolution and drift of these sensors, is discussed. The list of cited works is by no means exhaustive, but we attempt to highlight the pioneering reports showing relevant information to

• -directional gate sweep is performed, it is often observed that the forward and reverse sweeps are not concurrent, and the measured effect can often be over 50% of the gate sweep range. For gas sensors, this effect can be problematic due to the instability of the device current that arises from the drift and

Dynamic calibration of higher eigenmode parameters of a cantilever in atomic force microscopy by using tip–surface interactions

• Stanislav S. Borysov,
• Daniel Forchheimer and
• David B. Haviland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1899–1904, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.200

• using a multimodal drive that avoids issues related to the thermal drift [30] and exploits nonlinearities for higher calibration precision. Results and Discussion Cantilever model We consider a point-mass approximation of a cantilever derived from the eigenmode decomposition of its continuum mechanical

Real-time monitoring of calcium carbonate and cationic peptide deposition on carboxylate-SAM using a microfluidic SAW biosensor

• Anna Pohl and
• Ingrid M. Weiss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1823–1835, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.193

• , dependant on the different calcium carbonate concentrations. The 140 µmol/L solution reaches 0.44°, whereas the 17.5 µmol/L solution achieves the lowest maximum phase value with only 0.05°. The baseline noise, according to the manufacturer of the instrument, is <0.05° phase (RMS), the baseline drift

• µmol/L reaches the same range as the 17.5 µmol/L (Figure 1D). The relatively high amplitude signal corresponding to 35 µmol/L indicates additional drift effects. In summary, it can be concluded that the temporary interaction with the sensor chip is concentration dependent. A minimum concentration of 35

The surface properties of nanoparticles determine the agglomeration state and the size of the particles under physiological conditions

• Christoph Bantz,
• Olga Koshkina,
• Thomas Lang,
• Hans-Joachim Galla,
• C. James Kirkpatrick,
• Roland H. Stauber and
• Michael Maskos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1774–1786, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.188

• ribbon-like fractionation channel in which the sample is transported by the carrier liquid that generates a lamellar flow profile. This axial flow is superposed by a homogeneous drainage of the carrier liquid at one channel border, which induces a drift of the sample towards the accumulation membrane

• where slow axial flow velocities are present. Retention will occur according to the average distance of the sample to the accumulation wall, which is determined by the cross flow induced drift and the size-dependent diffusion coefficient of the particles. Thus, particles separate according to their

Direct nanoscale observations of the coupled dissolution of calcite and dolomite and the precipitation of gypsum

• Francesco G. Offeddu,
• Jordi Cama,
• Josep M. Soler and
• Christine V. Putnis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1245–1253, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.138

• during the solution saturation state drift. This implies a change in Gibbs energy along the experimental runs. As pointed out by Stipps et al. and de Leeuw et al. [48][49] the observed distortion of the etch pit shape (Figure 3b and Figure 3c) likely corresponds to an increase in the difference of

• as long as Ca2+ was being released. AFM deflection images of calcite cleavage surfaces. Top row: a) image in air shows the initial flat surface with a topographic variation that ranges over 2 nm. The white line across the image corresponds to a terrace; b) same surface region with some drift after

Highly NO₂ sensitive caesium doped graphene oxide conductometric sensors

• Carlo Piloto,
• Marco Notarianni,
• Mahnaz Shafiei,
• Elena Taran,
• Dilini Galpaya,
• Cheng Yan and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1073–1081, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.120

• temperature regulated, HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Absorption) filtered air through the Cypher enclosure. Closed-loop temperature control isolates the AFM from room temperature variations, minimizing thermal drift for imaging. During measurements the temperature was kept constant at 26 °C. For all KPFM

• exhibits a good repeatability, even if a slight drift in the baseline is observed. This may be due to the presence of gas molecules not yet desorbed from the sensor surface. An average time of 540 s is needed to recover after 240 s exposure to 0.732 ppm of NO2. Conclusion We successfully fabricated and

Double layer effects in a model of proton discharge on charged electrodes

• Johannes Wiebe and
• Eckhard Spohr

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 973–982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.111

• approximately linear slope in the time interval between about 30 and about 60 ps. This behavior is indicative of the drift regime characteristic for a charged ion migrating in a homogeneous electric field. Thus, proton motion in this regime is dominated by the mean electric field (which can be calculated, e.g

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ag–ZnO hybrid plasmonic nanostructures prepared by a facile wet chemical method

• Sini Kuriakose,
• Vandana Choudhary,
• Biswarup Satpati and
• Satyabrata Mohapatra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 639–650, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.75

• spectra are due to carbon-coated copper grid. The drift corrected EDX line profile was used to obtain the spatial distributions of the atomic contents across the Ag–ZnO nanostructures. Figure 4d shows the EDX profiles for Zn, O and Ag across the line marked in Figure 4c. Figure 5 show the elemental

Impact of thermal frequency drift on highest precision force microscopy using quartz-based force sensors at low temperatures

• Florian Pielmeier,
• Daniel Meuer,
• Daniel Schmid,
• Christoph Strunk and
• Franz J. Giessibl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 407–412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.48

• detector noise. Keywords: AFM; frequency drift; length extensional resonator; needle sensor; qPlus sensor; quartz; Findings Frequency modulation atomic force microscopy [1] has become an essential tool for surface scientist‘s to study chemical and magnetic interactions at the atomic scale [2][3][4][5][6

• contributions are significantly reduced and imaging with millihertz resolution becomes possible [12]. In turn, when B is small the stability of the eigenfrequency f0 is particularly important, because frequency drift noise is proportional to 1/ [7]. The main cause of frequency drift are changes in f0 with

• temperature T, which are material dependent. Even for experiments conducted at liquid helium temperatures, temperature drift limits the achievable resolution. Changes in ambient pressure affect the boiling temperature of helium, e.g., the vapor pressure of He4 at 4.4 K changes at a rate of ≈105 Pa/K [13

Uncertainties in forces extracted from non-contact atomic force microscopy measurements by fitting of long-range background forces

• Adam Sweetman and
• Andrew Stannard

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 386–393, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.45

• custom-built atom tracking system developed at the University of Mainz [18] was used to apply feedforward correction to reduce the effect of thermal drift and piezo-electric creep. To obtain the site-specific interaction force, single point Δf(z) spectroscopy measurements were acquired on the adatoms

Control theory for scanning probe microscopy revisited

• Julian Stirling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 337–345, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.38

• that steady-state errors in SPM feedback result from a sample drift in the z-direction or from scanning a sample with a tilt. Thus, any system that does not model z-drift or sample tilt should not expect a steady-state error. Complete model of SPM feedback Before running simulations of our simplified

Influence of the adsorption geometry of PTCDA on Ag(111) on the tip–molecule forces in non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Gernot Langewisch,
• Jens Falter,
• André Schirmeisen and
• Harald Fuchs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 98–104, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.9

• measurement was about 5 3/4 h, the lateral drift of ≈40 pm/h led to a distortion of the originally rectangular surface area. In addition, a continuous drift of the frequency shift reference point of the order of 0.1 Hz/h was observed. The precise drift as a function of time was determined by a comparison of

• analysis: see below in Figure 3 and Figure 4). The lateral drift was corrected in the images resulting in a distortion of the originally rectangular surface area. The images were linearly interpolated with a factor of 4 to enhance the visibility. Intramolecular structures can be seen in both the raw data