Raman study of flash-lamp annealed aqueous Cu₂ZnSnS₄ nanocrystals

• Yevhenii Havryliuk,
• Oleksandr Selyshchev,
• Mykhailo Valakh,
• Alexandra Raevskaya,
• Oleksandr Stroyuk,
• Constance Schmidt,
• Volodymyr Dzhagan and
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 222–227, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.20

• University of Technology, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany L. V. Pysarzhevsky Institute of Physical Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 03028, Ukraine 10.3762/bjnano.10.20 Abstract The effect of flash-lamp annealing (FLA) on the re-crystallization of thin films made of colloidal Cu2ZnSnS4

• dependence of the formation on the film thickness are also investigated. Importantly, no inert atmosphere for the FLA treatment of the NCs is required, which makes this technology even more suitable for mass production, in particular for printed thin films on flexible substrates. Keywords: copper zinc tin

• the thickness of the film. Thus, in the case of annealing of thin films with high energies, the Raman spectra show the presence of all possible secondary phases and the absence of the source material, indicating a complete decay of CZTS. When thicker films are annealed, even with maximum energy, the

Uniform Sb₂S₃ optical coatings by chemical spray method

• Jako S. Eensalu,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Erki Kärber,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 198–210, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.18

• controllable in-air growth of continuous, uniform, polycrystalline Sb2S3 absorber layers has not yet been accomplished. This could be achieved with chemical spray pyrolysis, a robust chemical method for deposition of thin films. We applied a two-stage process to produce continuous Sb2S3 optical coatings with

• pyrolysis in air by tuning of the deposition temperature, the Sb/S precursor molar ratio in the spray solution, and the post-deposition treatment temperature. Keywords: antimony sulfide; thin films; ultrasonic spray; vacuum annealing; Volmer–Weber growth; Introduction Antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) is an

• structured solar cells [8]. Planar ≈1.7 eV absorber layers can be applied in semitransparent solar cells as well as in tandem solar cells. Chemical spray pyrolysis (CSP) is a robust and industrially scalable chemical method for rapid deposition of thin films [9]. Our research group first investigated spray

Nanoporous water oxidation electrodes with a low loading of laser-deposited Ru/C exhibit enhanced corrosion stability

• Sandra Haschke,
• Dmitrii Pankin,
• Vladimir Mikhailovskii,
• Maïssa K. S. Barr,
• Adriana Both-Engel,
• Alina Manshina and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 157–167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.15

• Ru3(CO)12 solutions. SEM images of planar samples coated with laser-induced Ru/C films in cross-section (a) and top-view (b). Laser-irradiation of Ru3(CO)12 solutions results in continuous and rough thin films deposited on ITO. Preparation of nanostructured Ru/C electrodes. (a) Anodization of Al in 1

Sputtering of silicon nanopowders by an argon cluster ion beam

• Xiaomei Zeng,
• Vasiliy Pelenovich,
• Zhenguo Wang,
• Wenbin Zuo,
• Sergey Belykh,
• Alexander Tolstogouzov,
• Dejun Fu and
• Xiangheng Xiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 135–143, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.13

• 98.8 nm particles and thin films, the yield was 96 and 129, respectively. In this study, we combine two of the above-mentioned approaches to further increase the sputtering yield, i.e., employing heavy cluster projectiles to irradiate finite size targets. The feasibility of such an increase in the

Zn/F-doped tin oxide nanoparticles synthesized by laser pyrolysis: structural and optical properties

• Florian Dumitrache,
• Iuliana P. Morjan,
• Elena Dutu,
• Ion Morjan,
• Claudiu Teodor Fleaca,
• Monica Scarisoreanu,
• Alina Ilie,
• Marius Dumitru,
• Cristian Mihailescu,
• Adriana Smarandache and
• Gabriel Prodan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 9–21, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.2

• the visible range [5][6]. For the case of tin oxide, a comparative study using halogen anions (F, Cl, Br, I) as dopants shows that the fluorine anion induces the formation of thin films and exhibits the best performance in terms of transparency and conductivity [7]. Today, the most used material for

• were obtained. To the best of our knowledge, Zn/F-doped tin oxide nanoparticles with low Zn and high F content have been prepared for the first time. Related fluorine-doped zinc tin oxide (FZTO) thin films with higher zinc concentration (from 5.5 to 35.5 atom %) and lower fluorine content (0.62 to 3.49

• measurements can help in engineering so that Zn/F-doped SnO2 can be considered as a typical transparent conducting oxide (TCO) suitable for solar cell applications. Thin films were prepared from the as-synthesized powders using spin-coating and found to have an apparent density of around 0.8 g/cm3. The

Contact splitting in dry adhesion and friction: reducing the influence of roughness

• Jae-Kang Kim and
• Michael Varenberg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1–8, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.1

• biological adhesives is to achieve efficient and easily controllable adhesion on any surface, it is important to understand how to overcome the negative effects of roughness on attachment of thin films. It was shown that gecko adhesion is lower if the substrate waviness wavelength is comparable to the

• , while the force needed to start sliding is affected less. Conclusion Based on the results presented in this work, we can conclude the following. First, because thin films can adapt to wavy but not to rough surfaces, the adhesion- and friction-driven attachment of the wall-shaped microstructure degrades

Hydrogen-induced plasticity in nanoporous palladium

• Markus Gößler,
• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Markus Stütz,
• Norbert Enzinger and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3013–3024, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.280

• depletion of PdHα at a value below −0.99 V is consistent with values reported for palladium thin films [31][32]. The threshold values for the palladium hydride β-phase formation (−0.96 V) and the potential of α-phase depletion (−0.99 V) can be used for a phase distinction in current-controlled experiments

• order to maintain surface–shell–core coherency during the α-to-β transition [34]. A study on phase transitions in PdH thin films concluded that coherent transitions are possible up to a critical film thickness of 22 nm [36]. As ligament sizes in npPd produced by dealloying in our work are in the order

Electrostatic force microscopy for the accurate characterization of interphases in nanocomposites

• Diana El Khoury,
• Richard Arinero,
• Jean-Charles Laurentie,
• Mikhaël Bechelany,
• Michel Ramonda and
• Jérôme Castellon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2999–3012, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.279

• ]. In fact, as our samples were highly rough owing to the sub-micrometer PS spheres, spin-coating could not produce uniformly thin films [37]. However, this did not affect our study because the EFM results were compared at the center of the particles. Concerning the EFM signals, the average values

• ) and stirred with a magnetic stirrer until no particulate was visible (around 30 min). The spinning program used for thin film deposition was: a) 100 rpm for 15 s, b) 500 rpm for 15 s, and c) 2000 rpm for 60 s, all with a ramp of 2000 rpm. Silicon dioxide thin films: plasma sputter deposition (PSD

Co-intercalated layered double hydroxides as thermal and photo-oxidation stabilizers for polypropylene

• Qian Zhang,
• Qiyu Gu,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Pinggui Tang,
• Dianqing Li and
• Yongjun Feng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2980–2988, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.277

• diffractometer with a wavelength of 0.154 nm at 40 kV and 30 mA in a 2θ range of 3–70° at 10°·min−1. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were recorded on a Bruker Vector 22 infrared spectrophotometer with KBr pellets (sample/KBr of 1:100 by weight) or thin films. Thermogravimetry and differential thermal

Size limits of magnetic-domain engineering in continuous in-plane exchange-bias prototype films

• Alexander Gaul,
• Daniel Emmrich,
• Timo Ueltzhöffer,
• Henning Huckfeldt,
• Hatice Doğanay,
• Johanna Hackl,
• Muhammad Imtiaz Khan,
• Daniel M. Gottlob,
• Gregor Hartmann,
• André Beyer,
• Dennis Holzinger,
• Slavomír Nemšák,
• Claus M. Schneider,
• Armin Gölzhäuser,
• Günter Reiss and
• Arno Ehresmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2968–2979, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.276

• Institute “Electronic Properties”, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA Faculty of Physics, Thin Films and Physics of Nanostructures, University of Bielefeld, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.9.276 Abstract

• patterning by Ga ions in a FIB (suffering from destruction of the thin films due to high sputter yields) [32][33], available patterning methods do not achieve the necessary resolution. Currently, the smallest engineered domains in films with in-plane anisotropy are 300 nm wide stripes produced by thermally

• nanometers [25]. Local magnetic property modifications in thin films by narrow beams of light ions, in contrast, do not suffer from this drawback due to more localized energy deposition [35]. Currently patterning by kiloelectronvolt light ion bombardment is performed using shadow masks where the lateral

Charged particle single nanometre manufacturing

• Philip D. Prewett,
• Cornelis W. Hagen,
• Claudia Lenk,
• Steve Lenk,
• Marcus Kaestner,
• Tzvetan Ivanov,
• Ahmad Ahmad,
• Ivo W. Rangelow,
• Xiaoqing Shi,
• Stuart A. Boden,
• Alex P. G. Robinson,
• Dongxu Yang,
• Sangeetha Hari,
• Marijke Scotuzzi and
• Ejaz Huq

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2855–2882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.266

• observed while imaging in the SEM, this process was exploited to deposit insulating thin films [53] and sub-micrometre patterns [54] of a range of materials in a controlled manner by scanning the electron beam. The high resolution of this technique was demonstrated as early as 1976 by Broers et al. [55

• and spaces on bulk silicon. Figure 11 shows schematically the evolution of EBID into a controlled nanopatterning technique since the first demonstration of its high resolution, followed by simulations and experiments on thin films to study the ultimate resolution achievable. This has ultimately

• literature including EUV mask repair [89], cutting of nanotubes [90] and etching of holes in thin films. In this review we enumerate the major contributions in high-resolution EBIE which, although relatively few in number, clearly demonstrate the potential of the technique. The fabrication of nanopores, for

Nanostructure-induced performance degradation of WO₃·nH₂O for energy conversion and storage devices

• Zhenyin Hai,
• Mohammad Karbalaei Akbari,
• Zihan Wei,
• Danfeng Cui,
• Chenyang Xue,
• Hongyan Xu,
• Philippe M. Heynderickx,
• Francis Verpoort and
• Serge Zhuiykov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2845–2854, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.265

• thin films displayed a maximum response of 80% for 1% of hydrogen gas at 250 °C [36]. 2D WO3·2H2O films developed by a facile dipping process exhibited a significantly improved response time as electrochromic electrodes compared to WO3 thin films [37]. The acidic precipitation reaction was also adopted

Graphene-enhanced metal oxide gas sensors at room temperature: a review

• Dongjin Sun,
• Yifan Luo,
• Marc Debliquy and
• Chao Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2832–2844, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.264

• sensors based on rGO/metal oxides, which exhibit enhanced sensing performance mainly due to the formation of heterojunctions. Tai et al. [46] deposited ZnO nanoparticles and GO thin films on gold interdigital electrodes (IDEs) through a simple spray process and thermally reduced the deposits to ZnO–rGO

Controlling surface morphology and sensitivity of granular and porous silver films for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, SERS

• Sherif Okeil and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2813–2831, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.263

• . Altogether this work shows for the first time the effectiveness of a plasma treatment for surface roughening of silver thin films and its profound influence on the interface-controlled SERS enhancement effect. The method can be used for low-cost, large-scale production of SERS substrates. Keywords: plasma

• first systematic investigation in that direction. Experimental Preparation of sputtered silver films Thin films of silver were sputtered on glass substrates cleaned with acetone. Different thicknesses of silver were sputtered using a benchtop Cressington 208HR sputter coater in which the thickness of

Oriented zinc oxide nanorods: A novel saturable absorber for lasers in the near-infrared

• Pavel Loiko,
• Tanujjal Bora,
• Josep Maria Serres,
• Haohai Yu,
• Magdalena Aguiló,
• Francesc Díaz,
• Uwe Griebner,
• Valentin Petrov,
• Xavier Mateos and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2730–2740, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.255

• under ns-laser excitation [23]. This effect was ascribed to the defects promoted by the Mn2+ doping. Some studies revealed reverse saturable absorption (optical limiting) in ZnO thin films and NRs [24]. Zhu et al. studied ultrafast saturable absorption of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on quartz

Optimization of Mo/Cr bilayer back contacts for thin-film solar cells

• Nima Khoshsirat,
• Fawad Ali,
• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• Mojtaba Amjadipour,
• Hongxia Wang,
• Mahnaz Shafiei and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2700–2707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.252

• ; bilayer; chromium; DC sputtering; molybdenum; optical reflectance; Introduction Molybdenum (Mo) thin films are widely used as a back contact for photovoltaic devices such as Cu(In1−xGax)S2 (CIGS) and Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin-film solar cells. The back contact is the first layer to be deposited and its

• . Conclusion A bilayer of Mo/Cr thin films with robust adhesion and desired electro-optical properties as a back contact in thin-film solar cells was successfully deposited on SLG substrates using DC sputtering. The bottom 10–15 nm thick Cr layer was used to increase the adhesion of the top Mo layer to the

Silicene, germanene and other group IV 2D materials

• Patrick Vogt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2665–2667, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.248

• beam epitaxy (MBE) [1][2] and at around the same time on zirconium diboride thin films grown on Si(111) substrates by Si segregation through the film [3]. The synthesis of silicene further launched an intensive search for other 2D elemental materials synthesized under ultrahigh vacuum by MBE-like

Impact of the anodization time on the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ nanotubes

• Jesús A. Díaz-Real,
• Geyla C. Dubed-Bandomo,
• Juan Galindo-de-la-Rosa,
• Luis G. Arriaga,
• Janet Ledesma-García and
• Nicolas Alonso-Vante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2628–2643, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.244

• sections. XRD The structure and crystallinity of the samples were studied by means of XRD and the diffractograms are presented in Figure 3. The Bragg–Brentano geometry was preferred for our work with thin films. After being thermally treated, all the samples exhibited the typical Bragg positions of anatase

Au–Si plasmonic platforms: synthesis, structure and FDTD simulations

• Anna Gapska,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2599–2608, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.241

• agreement with experimental data obtained in the UV–vis range. Keywords: Au plasmonic platforms; dewetting; eutectic; finite-difference time domain (FDTD); Introduction The evolution of metal thin films into nanostructures under various thermal conditions has been repeatedly studied for many years

• thin films are most often metastable and can dewet or agglomerate with increase of temperature. During annealing of thin films, small fluctuations of the film thickness appear leading to the creation of voids in the film and their subsequent growth. This can happen well below melting temperature of the

• requirement for very small time steps. Results and Discussion Structure and UV–vis absorption The formation of nanostructures from 2.8 nm thick Au thin films, at different annealing temperatures is shown in Figure 2b–g. All films presented in these pictures were annealed for 15 min. For comparison, an SEM

High-temperature magnetism and microstructure of a semiconducting ferromagnetic (GaSb)_1−x(MnSb)_x alloy

• Leonid N. Oveshnikov,
• Elena I. Nekhaeva,
• Alexey V. Kochura,
• Alexander B. Davydov,
• Mikhail A. Shakhov,
• Sergey F. Marenkin,
• Oleg A. Novodvorskii,
• Alexander P. Kuzmenko,
• Alexander L. Vasiliev,
• Boris A. Aronzon and
• Erkki Lahderanta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2457–2465, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.230

• ; nanostructured materials; thin films; Introduction Diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are very promising materials for spintronic devices, because DMS offer the combination of magnetic and semiconducting properties. Currently, the most commonly studied DMS systems are those based on III–V semiconductors

Magnetism and magnetoresistance of single Ni–Cu alloy nanowires

• Andreea Costas,
• Camelia Florica,
• Elena Matei,
• Maria Eugenia Toimil-Molares,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Andrei Kuncser,
• Victor Kuncser and
• Ionut Enculescu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2345–2355, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.219

• binary systems in several dimensionalities, i.e., the bulk form, thin films and nanowires. Single Ni–Cu alloy nanowires might be seen as case study for a unidimensional soft-magnetic system with arrays of such unidimensional systems attracting wide interest [23][24][25]. The advantage of the single

Block copolymers for designing nanostructured porous coatings

• Roberto Nisticò

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2332–2344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.218

• an immensely attractive (and multidisciplinary) field of research [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. In particular, nanoscopic-ordered porous architectures in the form of thin films have received great attention in the field of membrane science and micro/nanofluidics, due to the high selectivity

• , beer, and juices) [26], or in the selective removal of bacteria in blood [27]. Porous polymeric coatings possess the advantages of high surface area materials with a well-defined porosity [28][29], easy processability (i.e., to form molded monoliths or thin films) [30][31][32], and the possibility of

• make this solution difficult to apply in thin films or coatings. In the work of Zhang and co-workers [60], a specific PS-b-PEO copolymer containing a cleavable juncture (namely, triphenylmethyl (trityl) ether) between the two blocks PS and PEO was prepared. This solution guarantees that acids under

Lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics

• Oleksandr Stroyuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2209–2235, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.207

Influence of the thickness of an antiferromagnetic IrMn layer on the static and dynamic magnetization of weakly coupled CoFeB/IrMn/CoFeB trilayers

• Deepika Jhajhria,
• Dinesh K. Pandya and
• Sujeet Chaudhary

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2198–2208, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.206

• . Keywords: ferromagnetic resonance; interlayer exchange coupling; magnetic damping; magnetic thin films; spin pumping; Introduction Traditionally, antiferromagnets (AF) are known to play only a static role by pinning adjacent ferromagnetic (FM) layers via exchange bias in spin-valve devices [1]. Recently

• magnetoresistance [7], inverse spin Hall effect [8] and spin Seebeck effect [9][10] have already been reported in AF materials. Transfer of spin angular momentum presents one of the promising ways to control the magnetic properties of FM thin films [11]. However, little is known about spin transport in AF materials

• measurements) in Equation 2 to obtain g and 4πMeff values as fitting parameters [41][44]. The resulting g values in the films (Figure 4b) are comparable to the already reported g-factor values for CoFeB thin films, and the higher values are associated with larger orbital contributions due to the presence of

Spin-coated planar Sb₂S₃ hybrid solar cells approaching 5% efficiency

• Pascal Kaienburg,
• Benjamin Klingebiel and
• Thomas Kirchartz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2114–2124, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.200

• ][38] reached an efficiencies >4%. This work extends the progress to almost 5%. SEM images of Sb2S3 thin films after crystallization at 265 °C. Direct thermal decomposition of the spin-coated Sb-TU precursor solution leaves the substrate largely uncovered (a). An intermediate slow annealing step at 100