Oxidation of Au/Ag films by oxygen plasma: phase separation and generation of nanoporosity

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Said A. Mansour,
• Mujaheed Pasha,
• Atef Zekri,
• Janarthanan Ponraj,
• Akshath Shetty and
• Yousef Haik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1608–1614, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.143

• Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Texas A & M University-Kingsville, TX 78363, USA 10.3762/bjnano.11.143 Abstract The oxidation of Au/Ag alloy thin films using radio-frequency oxygen plasma was studied in this work. It was demonstrated that there is a phase separation occurring between

• a fundamental point of view, gold/silver is a peculiar model system to study corrosion processes since gold is a noble metal. Interestingly, by using different types of Au/Ag nanoparticles, Lewis et al. showed how one can control and engineer, at the nanometer scale, the final shape and structure of

• gold/silver oxide nanostructures [20]. Starting from Au/Ag alloy nanospheres, they showed that gold/silver oxide core/shell nanospheres with a hollow interior could be obtained after oxidation using atomic oxygen. In this study we further explored the oxidation and phase separation events observed by

Walking energy harvesting and self-powered tracking system based on triboelectric nanogenerators

• Mingliang Yao,
• Guangzhong Xie,
• Qichen Gong and
• Yuanjie Su

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1590–1595, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.141

• and deionized water were used to clean 50 μm thick PTFE films, which were then dried with nitrogen. During the etching process, DC sputtering was used on the surface of the PTFE film as a mask to deposit Au particles for 45 s. Next, a gas mixture containing O2, CF4, and Ar was introduced to the

Fabrication of nano/microstructures for SERS substrates using an electrochemical method

• Jingran Zhang,
• Tianqi Jia,
• Xiaoping Li,
• Junjie Yang,
• Zhengkai Li,
• Guangfeng Shi,
• Xinming Zhang and
• Zuobin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1568–1576, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.139

• electrochemical method, three-dimensional arrayed nanopore structures are machined onto a Mg surface. The structured Mg surface is coated with a thin gold (Au) film, which is used as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate. A rhodamine 6G (R6G) probe molecule is used as the detection agent for the

• SERS measurement. Different sizes of arrayed micro/nanostructures are fabricated by different treatment time using the electrochemical process. The topographies of these micro/nanostructures and the thickness of the Au film have an influence on the Raman intensity of the Mg substrate. Furthermore, when

• the thickness of Au film coating is held constant, the Raman intensity on the structured Mg substrates is about five times higher after a treatment time of 1 min when compared with other treatment times. The SERS enhancement factor ranges from 106 to 1.75 × 107 under these experimental conditions

Optically and electrically driven nanoantennas

• Monika Fleischer,
• Dai Zhang and
• Alfred J. Meixner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1542–1545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.136

• to a sharp tip is refined to a two-step procedure with high throughput. A self-assembly approach to create a dumbbell antenna consisting of a 40 nm and an 80 nm Au nanoparticle at a scanning tip is shown in [48] and applied for single molecule sensitivity imaging. The advantage of applying TERS for

Design of V-shaped cantilevers for enhanced multifrequency AFM measurements

• Mehrnoosh Damircheli and
• Babak Eslami

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1525–1541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.135

• dimensions, the optimum V-shaped cantilever that can provide the maximum phase contrast in bimodal AFM between gold (Au) and polystyrene (PS) is found. Based on this study, it is found that as the length of the cantilever increases the 2nd eigenmode phase contrast decreases. However, the base width exhibits

• an optimum rectangular cantilever. Two sets of bimodal AFM experiments are carried out on Au-PS and PS-LDPE (polystyrene and low-density polyethylene) samples to verify the simulation results. Keywords: bimodal AFM; optimization; soft matter; surface characterization; V-shaped cantilevers

• geometries while interacting with polystyrene (PS) and gold (Au) surfaces in bimodal AFM. The tip–sample force interactions are categorized into long-range van der Waals forces and short-range forces described by the Derjaguin, Muller and Toporov (DMT) model. The instantaneous tip distance d is defined as d

Adsorption and self-assembly of porphyrins on ultrathin CoO films on Ir(100)

• Feifei Xiang,
• Tobias Schmitt,
• Marco Raschmann and
• M. Alexander Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1516–1524, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.134

• homogeneous contrast develops in Figure 4d. Such compact assemblies were previously observed for the case of the non-metalated 2H-DPP compound on Ag(110) [24] and on Au(111) [22], but, for example, not on Cu(111) [23]. For the assembly on 1BL CoO, the distance between the phenyl rings is a little larger than

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

• Matías Guerrero Correa,
• Fernanda B. Martínez,
• Cristian Patiño Vidal,
• Camilo Streitt,
• Juan Escrig and
• Carol Lopez de Dicastillo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1450–1469, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.129

• irradiation time. For example, while Tan et al. [31] obtained spherical silver nanoparticles, Zhou et al. [32] obtained plate-like triangles. Another method used is the pulsed laser ablation technique which is used to synthesize colloidal solutions of Ag [33], Au [34], MgO [35], and ZnO [36] NPs, among others

• can affect the expression of the ribosomal subunit that interacts with sulfur- and phosphorus-containing groups of proteins, even in the cell wall and plasma membrane bacteria [165][166]. Cui et al. (2012) showed that Au NPs prevented the combination of a ribosomal subunit with tRNA and collapsed the

Wafer-level integration of self-aligned high aspect ratio silicon 3D structures using the MACE method with Au, Pd, Pt, Cu, and Ir

• Mathias Franz,
• Romy Junghans,
• Paul Schmitt,
• Adriana Szeghalmi and
• Stefan E. Schulz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1439–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.128

• metals (Au, Pt, Pd, Cu, and Ir) were investigated to derive a set of technologies as platform for specific applications. Especially, the shape of the 3D structures and the resulting reflectance have been investigated. The Si nanostructures fabricated using Au nanoparticles show a perfect light absorption

• layer for the wet etching of silicon. The MACE process has been extensively studied over the last decade [13][14][15][16]. In theory, the process works with a wide range of noble metals. The main focus in research has been set on the noble metals gold (Au) and silver (Ag) [2][17][18][19]. Other studies

• particles. The last category represents all particles with a diameter greater than 80 nm. Within all particle classes, we could detect a high amount of ultrasmall particles with a diameter below 10 nm. For Au, Pd, and Cu, one can also observe larger particles up to a diameter of 80 nm. Here, these larger

Analysis of catalyst surface wetting: the early stage of epitaxial germanium nanowire growth

• Owen C. Ernst,
• Felix Lange,
• David Uebel,
• Thomas Teubner and
• Torsten Boeck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1371–1380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.121

• germanium was deposited onto Au/Si substrates, germanium nanowires were grown. The in-plane nanowires started to grow at places where the gold droplets had formed previously. The inset shows gold at the top of the germanium nanowire, where continuous homoepitaxial growth was catalysed. A sample with a

• to the eye: dashed red line) and mean droplet diameter values (black dots, guide to the eye: dashed black line) as a function of the substrate temperature. The insets show histograms with the size distribution of droplet diameter values at 550 °C. For Au on SiOx the distribution is approximated by a

• Gaussian function. For Au on Si the distribution is given by a Lifshitz–Slyosov–Wagner (LSW) expression. SEM image of gold on silicon after the system reached room temperature. The inset shows a TEM image, in which small gold clusters nucleated on the silicon surface between the droplets can be seen. SEM

Impact of fluorination on interface energetics and growth of pentacene on Ag(111)

• Qi Wang,
• Meng-Ting Chen,
• Antoni Franco-Cañellas,
• Bin Shen,
• Thomas Geiger,
• Holger F. Bettinger,
• Frank Schreiber,
• Ingo Salzmann,
• Alexander Gerlach and
• Steffen Duhm

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1361–1370, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.120

• contribution polarization [11][44]. Perfluorination does not impact the orientation of PEN and PFP in the contact layer with clean metals, where both compounds are lying flat [9][30][31][47][48][49][50][51][52]. On Au(111), the coupling strength of both monolayers with the substrate is rather similar and

• physisorptive [29][53]. On Cu(111), PFP shows a behavior close to physisorption [9], although the coupling strength might be slightly stronger than with Au(111) [54]. PEN on Cu(111), however, is strongly chemisorbed, involving a partial filling of the former lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) by a

• fluorinated PEN, namely 2,3,9,10-tetrafluoropentacene (F4PEN) [46][60][61]. F4PEN physisorbs on Au(111) [62] and chemisorbs on Cu(111), involving interfacial charge transfer and strong molecular distortions [63]. Here, we investigated the coupling with Ag(111) as we expected this to be an interesting

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

• by lift-off in acetone and metal deposition by evaporation (5 nm Ti and 35 nm Au). Electrical testing was carried out using a dual-channel source–measure unit connected to tungsten micromanipulator probes (Imina miBot) in the vacuum chamber of a customized Zeiss EVO scanning electron microscope (SEM

• atomic vacancy yield per each delivered ion as a function of target penetration depth on the 35 nm-Au/5 nm-Ti/0.7 nm-MoS2/285 nm-SiO2 stack [41]. As evident from Figure 3d, the sulfur sputtering yield at the Ti–MoS2 interface is very close to that of unencapsulated MoS2 [15], indicating notable damage to

Growth of a self-assembled monolayer decoupled from the substrate: nucleation on-command using buffer layers

• Robby Reynaerts,
• Kunal S. Mali and
• Steven De Feyter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1291–1302, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.113

• formed at the solution–solid interface, is a more of routine occurrence than an exception. Such structurally diverse monolayers are typically formed on solid substrates such as highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), graphene, and metals such as Cu, Ag and Au and have been characterized using scanning

• ], NaCl [40], CuN [41] and oxides [32][42] have been used. Typically, the ultrathin films of these wide band gap materials act as insulating layers while still allowing electron tunneling through them. Chemisorbed iodine layers have been used as passivating layers on metals such as Au for achieving

Role of redox-active axial ligands of metal porphyrins adsorbed at solid–liquid interfaces in a liquid-STM setup

• Thomas Habets,
• Sylvia Speller and
• Johannes A. A. W. Elemans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1264–1271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.110

• conductive surface, large and constant additional currents relative to a set tunneling current were observed, which varied with the magnitude of the applied bias voltage. These currents occurred regardless of the type of surface (HOPG or Au(111)) or tip material (PtIr, Au or W). The additional currents were

• at room temperature. We found that while the porphyrin catalyst MnTUPCl (tetrakis-meso-undecylporphyrin manganese(III) chloride, Figure 1a) is fully inert in n-tetradecane solution, it becomes catalytically active in the epoxidation of alkenes when it is adsorbed at the interface of a Au(111

• fate of this ligand is. In the catalysis study with MnTUPCl at the Au(111) surface, two possible mechanisms were proposed [7]: (i) A surface gold atom coordinates to the manganese center of MnTUPCl in an axial ligand-like fashion, inducing a chlorine radical to dissociate, thereby reducing the Mn(III

Ultrasensitive detection of cadmium ions using a microcantilever-based piezoresistive sensor for groundwater

• Dinesh Rotake,
• Anand Darji and
• Nitin Kale

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1242–1253, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.108

• . Results of the SAM detecting cadmium ions The proposed microfluidic platform provides real-time monitoring of Cd(II) in groundwater. We performed the experiment using the coating of cysteamine thiol with cross-linked ᴅʟ-glyceraldehyde (Cys-DL-GC). We have already discussed that the methods based on Au/Ag

• the resistance because of compressive surface stress when a large number of biomolecules bind to the microcantilever surface (Figure 4a,c,e) [47]. Figure 5 demonstrates the average change in piezoresistance of a sensor based on Au-Cys-DL-GC-coated cantilevers for different heavy metals (AlCl3, MnCl2

• selectivity for Cd(II) than for other heavy metals. The average value of change in piezoresistance of the Au-Cys-DL-GC-coated microcantilevers is approximately 130–240 Ω for Cd(II) and 5–30 Ω for the other injected heavy metals. The total value of the average change in piezoresistance for a concentration of

Hybridization vs decoupling: influence of an h-BN interlayer on the physical properties of a lander-type molecule on Ni(111)

• Maximilian Schaal,
• Takumi Aihara,
• Marco Gruenewald,
• Felix Otto,
• Jari Domke,
• Roman Forker,
• Hiroyuki Yoshida and
• Torsten Fritz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1168–1177, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.101

• ordered DBP on h-BN/Ni(111), suitable coincidences with the lowest substrate orders are the on-line coincidences (1, 2), (−1, −2), (−2, 1), and (2, −1). A comparison with reported lateral structures of DBP on Ag(111) [34] and Au(111) [33] shows very similar adsorbate lattice parameters except for the unit

• the LT-STM measurements, we concluded that the DBP molecules adopt a herringbone structure similar to DBP on Ag(111) and Au(111). Furthermore, we observed that the low work function of h-BN/Ni(111) decreases upon DBP deposition down to a value of 3.45(2) eV for the highly ordered DBP layer on h-BN/Ni

• the lattice parameters obtained by our LEED analysis with reference data of DBP on Au(111) (1 MLE) [33] and on Ag(111) (1.3 MLE) [34]. The angle Γ is defined between the lattice vectors of the adsorbate and . The angle between the adsorbate lattice vector and the direction of the substrate lattice

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

• Karl Rothe Alexander Mehler Nicolas Neel Jorg Kroger Institut für Physik, Technische Universität Ilmenau, D-98693 Ilmenau, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.11.100 Abstract Rubrene (C42H28) was adsorbed with submonolayer coverage on Pt(111), Au(111), and graphene-covered Pt(111). Adsorption phases and

• vibronic properties of C42H28 consistently reflect the progressive reduction of the molecule–substrate hybridization. Separate C42H28 clusters are observed on Pt(111) as well as broad molecular resonances. On Au(111) and graphene-covered Pt(111) compact molecular islands with similar unit cells of the

• superstructure characterize the adsorption phase. The highest occupied molecular orbital of C42H28 on Au(111) exhibits weak vibronic progression while unoccupied molecular resonances appear with a broad line shape. In contrast, vibronic subbands are present for both frontier orbitals of C42H28 on graphene. They

Revealing the local crystallinity of single silicon core–shell nanowires using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

• Marius van den Berg,
• Ardeshir Moeinian,
• Arne Kobald,
• Yu-Ting Chen,
• Anke Horneber,
• Steffen Strehle,
• Alfred J. Meixner and
• Dai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1147–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.99

• antenna. This nanoantenna is typically made by chemical etching of a thin Ag or Au wire or by evaporating a Ag or Au thin film on AFM tips. The tip works like an optical antenna when it is brought as close as a few nanometers to the sample surface and when it is illuminated with a tightly focused laser

• light blue and orange lines show the raw spectra, which are composed of a broad photoluminescence continuum emitted from the underlying Au thin film and sharp Raman peaks. For further analysis, these spectral features are fitted using Lorentzian functions for the Raman peaks and a Gaussian function for

• the shell region. f) Illustration of the interface between the SiNW core and the shell. Scale bars are for a) 5 nm, b) 5 nm−1, c) 100 nm, d) 200 nm, e) 10 nm and f) 5 nm. a) Representative helium ion microscopy image of a SiNW, which is supported on a Au-coated Si wafer. b) Hyperspectral image of the

Photothermally active nanoparticles as a promising tool for eliminating bacteria and biofilms

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Laura D’Alfonso,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1134–1146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.98

• active nanoparticles: a brief overview Nowadays, there is a broad spectrum of nanoparticles that are able to convert absorbed light into heat through a phenomenon known as the photothermal effect [33][35]. These nanoparticles are predominantly inorganic, constituted by noble metals (Au, Ag), carbon-based

• irradiated gold nanocrosses attached to the bacteria was effective in eliminating and preventing bacterial regrowth. By combining the magnetic and optical properties of Fe3O4 and gold nanoparticles, respectively, multifunctional nanohybrids based on Fe3O4@Au (i.e., magnetite nanoparticles decorated with gold

Straightforward synthesis of gold nanoparticles by adding water to an engineered small dendrimer

• Sébastien Gottis,
• Régis Laurent,
• Vincent Collière and
• Anne-Marie Caminade

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1110–1118, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.95

• characterized in the 31P NMR spectra as a broad signal at 33.2 ppm (P=S–Au, Δδ = −17.4 ppm) and a doublet at 23.8 ppm (P=N, Δδ = +3 ppm) (Table 1). Modifications of the 31P NMR chemical shifts are frequently connected with modifications in the (crystallographic) cone angles. It has been shown, in particular

• chemical signal. In addition, it has been shown that the 2JPP coupling constant values decrease when the electron-withdrawing power of the substituents decreases [55]. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations on free and Au-complexed P=N–P=S linkages have shown that a charge is transferred from the

• shape similar to a spherical desert rose crystal also constituted by associated triangles. An enlargement of Figure 3C is given in Figure S1 (Supporting Information File 1), from which an Au–Au distance of ≈2.96 Å can be measured. This distance is shorter than what has been seen for the gold NPs and

Applications of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in drug and therapeutic delivery, and biotechnological advancements

• Maria Suciu,
• Corina M. Ionescu,
• Alexandra Ciorita,
• Septimiu C. Tripon,
• Dragos Nica,
• Hani Al-Salami and
• Lucian Barbu-Tudoran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1092–1109, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.94

Monolayers of MoS₂ on Ag(111) as decoupling layers for organic molecules: resolution of electronic and vibronic states of TCNQ

• Asieh Yousofnejad,
• Gaël Reecht,
• Nils Krane,
• Christian Lotze and
• Katharina J. Franke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1062–1071, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.91

• of decoupling layers made use of the in situ fabrication of single layers of transition metal dichalcogenides on metal surfaces. A monolayer of MoS2 on Au(111) provided very narrow molecular resonances, close to the thermal resolution limit at 4.6 K [26]. The exquisite decoupling efficiency has been

• nature of the substrate [33]. One may thus envision tuning the bandgap alignment for decoupling either the lowest unoccupied (LUMO) or the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the molecules. While MoS2 on Au(111) has already been established as an outstanding decoupling layer [26], we will now

• explore this potential for MoS2 on a Ag(111) surface. In agreement with the band modifications of WS2 on Au(111) and Ag(111), we find that the bandgap remains almost the same, albeit shifted to lower energies [33]. As a test molecule we chose tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ). Due to its electron-accepting

Highly sensitive detection of estradiol by a SERS sensor based on TiO₂ covered with gold nanoparticles

• Andrea Brognara,
• Ili F. Mohamad Ali Nasri,
• Beatrice R. Bricchi,
• Andrea Li Bassi,
• Caroline Gauchotte-Lindsay,
• Matteo Ghidelli and
• Nathalie Lidgi-Guigui

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1026–1035, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.87

• . Specifically, we demonstrate that the TiO2 background pressure during pulsed laser deposition and the annealing conditions offer control over the formation of Au nanoparticles with different sizes, shapes and distributions, yielding a versatile sensor. We have exploited the surface for the detection of 17β

• -estradiol, an emerging contaminant in environmental waters. We have found a limit of detection of 1 nM with a sensitivity allowing for a dynamic range of five orders of magnitude (up to 100 µM). Keywords: aptamer; Au nanoparticles; 17-β estradiol (E2); plasmonics; sensor; surface-enhanced Raman scattering

• antireflection abilities [13][14][15]. These composite microstructures have also shown to maximize the path of the Raman excitation laser beam within the substrate, leading to signals with higher intensity. Samransuksamer et al. [16] used TiO2 nanorods decorated with Au NPs, deposited via precipitation by

Gas-sensing features of nanostructured tellurium thin films

• Dumitru Tsiulyanu

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

• with an approximate average size of 100 nm. Assuming the neutrality of the Au/Te contacts, the electrical conductivity of the film is mainly controlled by the bulk, surface and grain boundary resistances. On the other hand, due to the peculiarities of chalcogens and chalcogenide materials [1][30], a

Electrochemical nanostructuring of (111) oriented GaAs crystals: from porous structures to nanowires

• Elena I. Monaico,
• Eduard V. Monaico,
• Veaceslav V. Ursaki,
• Shashank Honnali,
• Vitalie Postolache,
• Karin Leistner,
• Kornelius Nielsch and
• Ion M. Tiginyanu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 966–975, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.81

• metal deposition. Note that the nanowire was visible in the optical microscope due to its length of 70 µm, despite the small diameter. The distance between the contacts is 20 µm. A photograph of five contacted nanowires on a glass substrate after Cr/Au deposition and lift-off is presented in the inset

• light. The current–voltage characteristics measured with and without illumination reveal a good ohmic quality of the prepared Cr/Au contacts (Figure 8). Therefore, one can conclude that the detector works in the photoconductor mode. The responsivity of the detector is defined as where Iphoto is the

• followed by 250 nm Au layer was sputtered using a magnetron from Torr International Inc model No: CRC622-2G2-RF-DC and lift-off was performed with Microposit remover 1165 at 50 °C. Photoelectrical characterization. To excite photoconductivity in the GaAs nanowires, the radiation from a Xenon lamp DKSS-150

Transition from freestanding SnO₂ nanowires to laterally aligned nanowires with a simulation-based experimental design

• Jasmin-Clara Bürger,
• Sebastian Gutsch and
• Margit Zacharias

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 843–853, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.69

• substrates covered with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were prepared. For the latter method, the substrates were cleaned with deionized (DI) water and dried with nitrogen before coating them with 10 µL of a 1:2 v/v% solution of Au NPs (80 nm gold nanospheres, citrate NanoXact 0.05 mg/mL, nanoComposix) and

• control of the powder temperature, and by reducing the competing Au cluster density (i.e., using a well-separated Au cluster or an abrupt gold film edge). This gives the possibility to look deeper into the laterally aligned NW growth and to achieve higher control of the resulting NW properties. To use the

• down passively. This half step is also intuitively included in the standard procedure without pulsed gas inflow (Figure 8a). All NW lengths are compared for NWs grown out of Au NPs (Ø 80 nm) (Figure 8 and Figure 9). This allows the comparison of the NW lengths, which is otherwise additionally