Performance analysis of rigorous coupled-wave analysis and its integration in a coupled modeling approach for optical simulation of complete heterojunction silicon solar cells

• Ziga Lokar,
• Benjamin Lipovsek,
• Marko Topic and
• Janez Krc

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2315–2329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.216

• (most accurate) simulation. For 30 or more sublayers, the simulated |ΔJSC| drops below the chosen threshold line of 0.1 mA/cm2 for 0° light incidence, while 50 sublayers are required for 45° incidence. This threshold corresponds to 0.27% of the total JSC reflectance loss (36.87 mA/cm2) of the structure

• light drops below the threshold of 0.1 mA/cm2 with three modes (ten modes were used as the reference), while in case of non-normal incident light, at least six modes are required to meet this threshold. When comparing the |ΔJSC| plots corresponding to the variation in the number of sublayers (Figure 5e

• ) and number of modes (Figure 5f), we generally observe a smaller effect for the changing number of modes (note the different scales). 50 sublayers and six modes were found to be sufficient for both normal incident light as well as at 45° incidence, considering the chosen 0.1 mA/cm2 threshold. These

Intrinsic ultrasmall nanoscale silicon turns n-/p-type with SiO₂/Si₃N₄-coating

• Dirk König,
• Daniel Hiller,
• Noël Wilck,
• Birger Berghoff,
• Merlin Müller,
• Sangeeta Thakur,
• Giovanni Di Santo,
• Luca Petaccia,
• Joachim Mayer,
• Sean Smith and
• Joachim Knoch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2255–2264, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.210

• region. The “doping” due to the presence of the SiO2 coating is taken into consideration as a volume, active dopant concentration (see Supporting Information File 1); the presence of the Si3N4 layer underneath the gate is accounted for by an appropriate shift of the threshold voltage of the transistor

Metal-free catalysis based on nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials: a photoelectron spectroscopy point of view

• Mattia Scardamaglia and
• Carla Bittencourt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2015–2031, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.191

• : for energies close to the threshold for carbon substitution, functionalization takes place, while at higher energies the main electronic signatures of graphene are compromised indicating the destruction of the hexagonal lattice due to the metallic atoms backscattering from the substrate [55][88]. In

• contrast, for suspended graphene, using similar ion kinetic energies, the type of defects was mainly affected while maintaining a clean and non-destructive functionalization [37][55][89]. Theoretical reports showed also that if the ion energy is set slightly below the threshold needed to create single

• atom %. Above this threshold cross-linking between the layers starts to occur and an sp3-coordination of carbon begins to occur [95]. At intermediate concentrations, the system is stabilized by nitrogen saturation of edges and vacancies, implicating an increasing content of pyridinic N compared to

Recent highlights in nanoscale and mesoscale friction

• Andrea Vanossi,
• Dirk Dietzel,
• Andre Schirmeisen,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Marcin Kisiel,
• Shigeki Kawai and
• Nicola Manini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1995–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.190

• substrates (Figure 4) play a crucial role in tribology. Experiments [164] agree with theory and numerical simulations [165][166][167][168] in showing the radical change of the static-friction threshold from the highly pinned regime of the lattice-matched colloidal layer to a practically superlubric

• locally disturbing the charge density waves [188] (Figure 7). At a certain threshold, the CDW shows a phase slip, which then leads to dissipation. Another example where non-contact friction can be influenced by external parameters are the measurements of superconductors across the critical temperature

Self-assembled quasi-hexagonal arrays of gold nanoparticles with small gaps for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

• Emre Gürdal,
• Simon Dickreuter,
• Fatima Noureddine,
• Pascal Bieschke,
• Dieter P. Kern and
• Monika Fleischer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1977–1985, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.188

• . The SEM images for each sample were evaluated using a python script that applies a threshold in order to generate binary images. Blob detection is used to find the particles in the binary images and to evaluate the pixel count for each individual particle. From this pixel count, the area coverage and

• Raman laser. To approximately correct for the different amounts of molecules on the different samples one can use the filling factor (area coverage) of the samples: A threshold was applied to the SEM images, and the white pixels representing the presence of gold were counted. The filling factor was then

Defect formation in multiwalled carbon nanotubes under low-energy He and Ne ion irradiation

• Santhana Eswara,
• Jean-Nicolas Audinot,
• Brahime El Adib,
• Maël Guennou,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1951–1963, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.186

• noble gas ion species, but Olejniczak et al. used only much lower fluences in their work for MeV irradiation and stayed most likely below the threshold for severe damage formation [53]. Niwase et al. carried out 25 keV He+ irradiation of graphite up to fluences of 1018 ions/cm2 and observed also a

A differential Hall effect measurement method with sub-nanometre resolution for active dopant concentration profiling in ultrathin doped Si_1−xGe_x and Si layers

• Richard Daubriac,
• Emmanuel Scheid,
• Hiba Rizk,
• Richard Monflier,
• Sylvain Joblot,
• Rémi Beneyton,
• Pablo Acosta Alba,
• Sébastien Kerdilès and
• Filadelfo Cristiano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1926–1939, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.184

• /cm2, the observed structure is identical to that found in the as-implanted sample with the SiGe layer being almost fully crystalline (and having a surface roughness of about 1 nm). This suggests that the laser energy density used in these cases is always lower than the threshold value necessary to

• melt the surface. In contrast, following a LTA at 0.79 J·cm−2 the SiGe top layer is completely amorphous, clearly indicating that in this case the whole SiGe layer was molten, leaving no seed for a perfect recrystallization. The threshold energy for surface melt is therefore located between 0.76 and

• sheet resistance values observed for high laser energies was due to the formation of a poly-Si layer as a consequence of the full melt of the entire top-Si layer during LTA. For LTA energies below the melting threshold of 0.74 J·cm−2, some dopant activation occurs. However, the Hall effect measurements

Electrical characterization of single nanometer-wide Si fins in dense arrays

• Steven Folkersma,
• Janusz Bogdanowicz,
• Andreas Schulze,
• Paola Favia,
• Dirch H. Petersen,
• Ole Hansen,
• Henrik H. Henrichsen,
• Peter F. Nielsen,
• Lior Shiv and
• Wilfried Vandervorst

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1863–1867, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.178

• is observed that the magnitude of Ipulse must be chosen larger than a certain threshold current (Ithreshold, typically >100 µA for blanket materials) in order to reduce the contact resistance RC between the electrodes and the sample and hence activate the required electrical contact. The given

The role of the Ge mole fraction in improving the performance of a nanoscale junctionless tunneling FET: concept and scaling capability

• Hichem Ferhati,
• Fayçal Djeffal and
• Toufik Bentrcia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1856–1862, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.177

• current. This is due to the smaller band gap energy of Ge, yielding a higher tunneling efficiency. Moreover, the higher electron mobility of Ge (3900 cm2·V−1·s−1) contributes to the increased drain current at the threshold voltage as compared to the conventional design with silicon (1400 cm2·V−1·s−1

• current capability as shown in Figure 3a. It can be also concluded that the Ge mole fraction modulates the threshold voltage for the tunnel-current generation, which can in turn influence greatly the subthreshold behavior of the device. Moreover, the proposed Si1−xGex/Si/Ge heterochannel enables a

Magnetic properties of Fe₃O₄ antidot arrays synthesized by AFIR: atomic layer deposition, focused ion beam and thermal reduction

• Juan L. Palma,
• Alejandro Pereira,
• Raquel Álvaro,
• José Miguel García-Martín and
• Juan Escrig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1728–1734, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.164

• does not continue indefinitely, since the limiting case in which the holes are infinitely separated can be considered as a thin film, the coercivity of which is lower than that of an antidot pattern. More studies would be needed to obtain the threshold value of the lattice parameter at which the

A zero-dimensional topologically nontrivial state in a superconducting quantum dot

• Pasquale Marra,
• Alessandro Braggio and
• Roberta Citro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1705–1714, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.162

• particle and hole levels closest to the Fermi level, closes if |B| = Eφ. If one defines the two threshold fields Bmin = |ε| and , one can verify that the spectrum is gapped for both small |B| < Bmin and large |B| > Bmax Zeeman fields. For intermediate fields Bmin < |B| < Bmax, the energy gap closes at

• difference φ. At intermediate fields Bmin < |B| < Bmax, the particle–hole gap closes at the gapless points ±φ* that satisfy Equation 21. One can verify that the effect of a small Coulomb interaction U/2 < |ε|, |Γ| is a shift of the threshold fields Bmin and Bmax and of the value of the phases ±φ* where the

Toward the use of CVD-grown MoS₂ nanosheets as field-emission source

• Geetanjali Deokar,
• Nitul S. Rajput,
• Junjie Li,
• Francis Leonard Deepak,
• Wei Ou-Yang,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jean-Francois Colomer and
• Mustapha Jouiad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1686–1694, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.160

• increasing of the applied electric field (Figure 6a). The turn-on field, defined at a current density of 10 µA/cm2, and the threshold field at 1 mA/cm2, are 3.1 and 5.3 V/µm, respectively. These data are found to be better than the previously reported values for MoS2 nanoflowers [13] or multilayered MoS2 [8

• promising for FE applications [30]. The low turn-on field and threshold field of the MoS2 NSs could be due to their vertically aligned extremely thin edges, forming a nano-tip-like structure (Figure S1, Supporting Information File 1). A considerable enhancement in FE can be achieved by tuning the

• transfer process. These NSs show very interesting FE properties at room temperature and in high vacuum (10−6 mbar) as proven by the low turn-on field of 3.1 V/μm and low threshold field of 5.3 V/µm. In future, the as-grown NSs could be potentially used for FE and display device applications. (a–c) Typical

Interaction-tailored organization of large-area colloidal assemblies

• Silvia Rizzato,
• Elisabetta Primiceri,
• Anna Grazia Monteduro,
• Adriano Colombelli,
• Angelo Leo,
• Maria Grazia Manera,
• Roberto Rella and
• Giuseppe Maruccio

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1582–1593, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.150

• top-view configuration. In order to analyze the particle distribution, ImageJ 1.42R (National Institutes of Health, USA) software was used and the images were processed to allow easier recognition. From each image, the background was eliminated and a threshold level was defined to identify the

Photoluminescence of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots in nematic liquid crystals in electric fields

• Margarita A. Kurochkina,
• Elena A. Konshina and
• Daria Khmelevskaia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1544–1549, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.145

• simultaneously in the passive LC matrix in contrast to the active nematic matrix. Thus, in weak electric fields up to the Fréedericksz threshold, it is possible to control the buildup of the CdSe/ZnS QDs luminescence. By changing, the strength of electric field is possible to control the quenching of QDs

Atomic-level characterization and cilostazol affinity of poly(lactic acid) nanoparticles conjugated with differentially charged hydrophilic molecules

• María Francisca Matus,
• Martín Ludueña,
• Cristian Vilos,
• Iván Palomo and
• Marcelo M. Mariscal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1328–1338, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.126

• defined as follows. Stopping tolerance for energy: For a 20-monomer PLA chain, an energy threshold was defined to perform the energy minimization of the system. The stopping tolerance for energy was set as 1.0e−12 (means an energy tolerance of one part in 1012). Rupture temperature limit: With the aim of

Chemistry for electron-induced nanofabrication

• Petra Swiderek,
• Hubertus Marbach and
• Cornelis W. Hagen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1317–1320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.124

• )) at energies above the ionization threshold while dissociative electron attachment (DEA) occurs already at near-thermal electron energies. Experiments reported in this Thematic Series have aimed at unraveling the role of these processes in FEBID [20]. They use cyclic silane precursors in which DEA has

Non-equilibrium electron transport induced by terahertz radiation in the topological and trivial phases of Hg_1−xCd_xTe

• Alexandra V. Galeeva,
• Alexey I. Artamkin,
• Alexey S. Kazakov,
• Sergey N. Danilov,
• Sergey A. Dvoretskiy,
• Nikolay N. Mikhailov,
• Ludmila I. Ryabova and
• Dmitry R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1035–1039, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.96

• . We show that both the positive photoresponse in films with x < 0.16 and the negative photoconductivity in samples with x > 0.16 have no low-energy threshold. The observed non-threshold positive photoconductivity is discussed in terms of a qualitative model that takes into account a 3D potential well

• the electron effective mass of hot electrons. This process obviously has no energy threshold. In such a case, the photoconductivity is negative and depends on the power absorbed. Therefore, the data calculated as a function of the incident quantum flux (see Figure 2) differ for different wavelengths

• . An additional discrepancy may come out as a result of carrier trapping by acceptor resonant states [28][29]. Let us discuss now in more detail the experimental results obtained for the Hg1−xCdxTe topological phase (x < 0.16). The most unusual result is the absence of a threshold energy in the strong

Scanning speed phenomenon in contact-resonance atomic force microscopy

• Christopher C. Glover,
• Jason P. Killgore and
• Ryan C. Tung

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 945–952, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.87

• phenomenon was not observed in the regime suggests that the additional water layers have changed the dynamics of the tip–sample interaction. Furthermore, higher adhesion forces found on mica at 70% RH might change the threshold speed needed to achieve hydrodynamic lift. Conclusion This work has shown the

Nanoscale mapping of dielectric properties based on surface adhesion force measurements

• Ying Wang,
• Yue Shen,
• Xingya Wang,
• Zhiwei Shen,
• Bin Li,
• Jun Hu and
• Yi Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 900–906, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.84

• sample in the height image. In addition, by comparing Figure 2a and Figure 2e, we can see the RGO sheet was not damaged by the biased AFM tip. This is because the increase of adhesion caused by the applied tip bias is no more than 20 nN, which is about two orders of magnitude lower than the threshold

Effect of ferroelectric BaTiO₃ particles on the threshold voltage of a smectic A liquid crystal

• Abbas R. Imamaliyev,
• Mahammadali A. Ramazanov and
• Shirkhan A. Humbatov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 824–828, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.76

• ferroelectric BaTiO3 particles on the planar–homeotropic transition threshold voltage in smectic A liquid crystals consisting of p-nitrophenyl p-decyloxybenzoate and 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl were studied by using capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements. It was shown that the BaTiO3 particles significantly

• reduce the threshold voltage. The obtained result is explained by two factors: an increase of dielectric anisotropy of the liquid crystals and the formation of a strong electric field near polarized particles of BaTiO3. It was shown that the role of the second factor is dominant. The explanations of some

• features observed in the C–V characteristics are given. Keywords: colloidal systems; dielectric permittivity; ferroelectric BaTiO3 particles; smectic A liquid crystals; threshold voltage; Introduction Interest in liquid crystals (LC) as a unique state of matter arises not only from a scientific point of

Tuning adhesion forces between functionalized gold colloidal nanoparticles and silicon AFM tips: role of ligands and capillary forces

• Sven Oras,
• Sergei Vlassov,
• Marta Berholts,
• Rünno Lõhmus and
• Karine Mougin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 660–670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.61

• meniscus and Fadh = Fss. From a certain threshold humidity a single meniscus forms giving rise to a larger but constant adhesion force. Although AFM tip in our experiments constantly moves relative to Au NPs, the velocities of the tip are not high enough to completely exclude the formation of capillary

Towards 3D crystal orientation reconstruction using automated crystal orientation mapping transmission electron microscopy (ACOM-TEM)

• Aaron Kobler and
• Christian Kübel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 602–607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.56

• above a given threshold. This can be visualized in an inverse pole figure containing the cross-correlation indices of all simulated orientations with one experimental diffraction pattern (Figure 1a, dark areas indicate high cross-correlation indices). It has been shown that the template matching result

Electron interactions with the heteronuclear carbonyl precursor H₂FeRu₃(CO)₁₃ and comparison with HFeCo₃(CO)₁₂: from fundamental gas phase and surface science studies to focused electron beam induced deposition

• Ragesh Kumar T P,
• Paul Weirich,
• Lukas Hrachowina,
• Marc Hanefeld,
• Ragnar Bjornsson,
• Helgi Rafn Hrodmarsson,
• Sven Barth,
• D. Howard Fairbrother,
• Michael Huth and
• Oddur Ingólfsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 555–579, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.53

• the threshold energy for the individual processes at the PBE0 [74][75] /ma-def2 TZVP [76][77] level of theory. We have previously compared the performance of PB86 to that of PBE0 for threshold calculations in DEA to HFeCo3(CO)12 [39] and found that while PB86 reproduced the structural parameters from

• the X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements very well, this functional overestimated the threshold energies significantly, PBE0, on the other hand delivered threshold energies in good agreement with our experimental appearance energies. We thus use the threshold energies calculated at the PBE0 level of

• ]− and [M − Fe(CO)2]− with appreciable intensity on the [M − Fe(CO)3]− fragment. Charge retention on the remaining Ru3(CO)n base plane moiety is also observed along with further CO loss, up to 11 CO in total, as shown in Figure 4. Based on our threshold calculations we attribute these channels to the

Dynamic behavior of nematic liquid crystal mixtures with quantum dots in electric fields

• Emil Petrescu,
• Cristina Cirtoaje and
• Octavian Danila

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 399–406, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.39

• than the Fréedericksz transition threshold [18][19] is applied transversely to a planar liquid crystal cell, the molecules change their orientation tending to align their director in parallel to the field. This reorientation is illustrated by an intensity variation of a laser beam crossing through the

• -based device parameters. Theoretical Background When a nematic liquid crystal with positive dielectric anisotropy is exposed to an electric field, and if the intensity of the field is higher than the Fréedericksz transition threshold, the molecular director changes its orientation, trying to align in

• threshold, the deviation angle is very small and the free energy caused by the elastic forces is: where K1 and K3 are the splay and bent elastic constants and θz = ∂θ/∂z. Due to the presence of the QDs, the electric properties of the mixture change. Hence, instead of perpendicular dielectric permittivity

Electron interaction with copper(II) carboxylate compounds

• Michal Lacko,
• Peter Papp,
• Iwona B. Szymańska,
• Edward Szłyk and
• Štefan Matejčík

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 384–398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.38

• discussed COOH+ ion that is assumed to be formed via interaction of residual water molecules with the sample. Dissociation of first carboxylate ligand from [Cu2(µ-O2CC2F5)4] molecule was detected with AE1615 = 11.4 eV and with a second threshold at AE2615 = 15.7 eV. Dissociation of second ligand occurs with

• AE1452 = 9.7 eV and again with a second threshold at AE2452 = 15.2 eV. Dissociation of third ligand starts at AE289 = 11.9 eV without any other distinguishable threshold. The origin of the second threshold can be a) an energetically higher excited state of the same fragment, b) a different stoichiometric

• eV, respectively. Thus dissociation does not follow a simple one by one ligand loss mechanism. The similar values of AE615 and AE289 may be explained only in the case, that while the formation of Cu2(O2CC2F5)3+ ion occur as a dissociation process from the parent cation, the second threshold at 15.2