Ultrathin hydrophobic films based on the metal organic framework UiO-66-COOH(Zr)

• Miguel A. Andrés,
• Clemence Sicard,
• Christian Serre,
• Olivier Roubeau and
• Ignacio Gascón

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 654–665, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.65

• OPD/MOF ultrathin films have been fabricated onto glass, calcium fluoride, quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), Si(100) substrates and mica and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM

• investigate the structure of the hydrophobic films obtained, pure ODP LB films and mixed MOF/ODP LB films transferred onto mica were analyzed by AFM (Figure 5). The study of pure ODP monolayers showed that the films present some defects and pinholes, which allow a monolayer thickness between 2 and 3 nm to be

• nm), which leads to higher WCA values and confirms the advantageous interaction of ODP molecules with the surface of MOF sMPs. In fact, the phase images obtained by AFM, which show ODP covering the MOF sMPs (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S10), support this suggested synergy in order to obtain

Review of time-resolved non-contact electrostatic force microscopy techniques with applications to ionic transport measurements

• Aaron Mascaro,
• Yoichi Miyahara,
• Tyler Enright,
• Omur E. Dagdeviren and
• Peter Grütter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 617–633, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.62

• period of the cantilever and compare and contrast it with those previously established. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; electrostatic force microscopy; ionic transport; lithium ion batteries; nanotechnology; Introduction Since the inception of the atomic force microscope (AFM) a variety of

• understanding transport properties of real-world, often heterogeneous materials relevant for energy generation and storage. A number of AFM techniques have been developed to study relevant materials including time-resolved EFM to measure photoexcited charge accumulation and charge transfer [6][9][10][11], time

• used frequency-modulated AFM configuration, the resonance frequency of an oscillating cantilever is measured while the probe tip interacts with a surface [24]. The interactions are purely electrostatic – in other words, the tip and sample form a capacitor. The oscillation of the cantilever can

Direct observation of the CVD growth of monolayer MoS₂ using in situ optical spectroscopy

• Claudia Beatriz López-Posadas,
• Yaxu Wei,
• Wanfu Shen,
• Daniel Kahr,
• Michael Hohage and
• Lidong Sun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 557–564, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.57

• of the sapphire substrate. This conclusion is based on a thorough ex situ characterization after CVD growth using differential reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescent spectroscopy (PL), optical microscopy (OM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Actually, from the first

• substrate reveal that the surfaces at both sides are covered by homogeneous layers, which can only be recognized by the appearance of defects. Figure 1c presents the AFM images measured at the front and back sides of the sapphire substrate confirming that both surfaces are covered by an almost complete

• to the fact that the areas of the surface between the triangular-shaped MoS2 crystals are fully covered by these nanoparticles, no reasonably large surface areas of bare substrate can be found. Consequently, the thickness of the triangular-shaped MoS2 crystals cannot be determined from the AFM height

Quantification and coupling of the electromagnetic and chemical contributions in surface-enhanced Raman scattering

• Yarong Su,
• Yuanzhen Shi,
• Ping Wang,
• Jinglei Du,
• Markus B. Raschke and
• Lin Pang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 549–556, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.56

• lithography (IL) and oblique angle deposition (OAD) methods [23]. The Ag substrates with nanostructures are gratings with and without nanogap, which can achieve field enhancements as high as 106. The samples were pre-characterized by AFM (see example of Ag grating with nanogap in inset in Figure 1a, for

Mechanical and thermodynamic properties of Aβ₄₂, Aβ₄₀, and α-synuclein fibrils: a coarse-grained method to complement experimental studies

• Adolfo B. Poma,
• Horacio V. Guzman,
• Mai Suan Li and
• Panagiotis E. Theodorakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 500–513, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.51

• mechanism of deformation that gives rise to the linear response can be characterized in the CG simulations. From the experimental point of view, there is a long-standing discussion in the atomic force microscopy (AFM) community whether Hertzian mechanics is applicable to all soft-matter samples explored

• with AFM. One of the basic assumptions of the Hertz model is that the indented object is a half-space and made out of a homogeneous material. However, at the nanoscale it is intrinsically difficult to measure pure and homogeneous materials, or perfectly mixed materials, with some exceptional cases

• be determined during experimental measurements. As a result, big discrepancies are found when comparing Young’s modulus values measured with macroscopic techniques and nanoscopic ones such as AFM. This is because a nanoscopic exploration of biological systems reaches molecular resolution and the

Temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy and sensor applications of PtSe₂ nanosheets synthesized by wet chemistry

• Mahendra S. Pawar and
• Dattatray J. Late

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 467–474, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.46

• low intensity at 52.9 eV which corresponds to Pt 5d3/2 [24]. The thickness of the as-prepared PtSe2 nanosheets was calculated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Figure 5a shows the AFM image which clearly shows that the lateral dimensions of the nanosheets are ≈700 nm. Figure 5b represents the

• diffraction (SAED) pattern for the as-synthesized PtSe2 nanosheets. (a) Deconvoluted XPS spectra for Pt and (b) Se elements. (a) AFM image and (b) AFM height profile plot for a PtSe2 nanosheet. Temperature-dependent Raman spectra analysis for PtSe2 nanosheets for the (a) Eg mode and the (b) A1g mode as a

Nanocomposite–parylene C thin films with high dielectric constant and low losses for future organic electronic devices

• Marwa Mokni,
• Gianluigi Maggioni,
• Abdelkader Kahouli,
• Sara M. Carturan,
• Walter Raniero and
• Alain Sylvestre

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 428–441, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.42

• work [64]. The roughness of different NCPC samples was measured by AFM and displayed in Table 2. In the case of pure parylene films (samples K and O), the surface is relatively smooth and the roughness is around 10 nm. It has to be noted that the plasma-induced increase of the deposition rate does not

• to probe deeper the film structure. The surface morphology was analyzed using a non-contact mode AFM model C-21 (Danish Micro Engineering), mounting a DualScope Probe Scanner 95-50. Capacitance areas were defined in the top NCPC resulting in square 2 × 2 mm2 contacts. In order to assure a homogeneous

• total parylene amount (in monomeric units·cm−2). The total thickness (in µm, last column) was measured by a mechanical profilometer. XRD data and AFM roughness of NCPC samples: effect of Ag incorporation on the peak width (FWHM) and roughness (Ra, Rq) of the films.

Advanced scanning probe lithography using anatase-to-rutile transition to create localized TiO₂ nanorods

• Julian Kalb,
• Vanessa Knittel and
• Lukas Schmidt-Mende

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 412–418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.40

• atomic force microscope (AFM), was pulled across an anatase film. During this process, surface defects are created as well as dust that contains tiny anatase TiO2 nanoparticles. Due to the lattice mismatch between anatase and rutile, in general, rutile nanorods do not grow on anatase crystal facets. The

• transformation into rutile TiO2 on these facets [41]. Thus, it is possible to promote a position-controlled hydrothermal growth by generating anatase nanoparticles locally by scratching across an anatase film using a conventional AFM tip. Experimental We fabricated a 40 nm thin amorphous TiO2 film by DC sputter

• probe lithography was performed with an Innova AFM (Bruker) in contact mode. The applied force was significantly higher than usually chosen for topography scanning. We used OTESPA-R3 (Bruker AFM probes) silicon tips with a spring constant of approximately 26 N/m. Based on the spring constant, we

Biocompatible organic–inorganic hybrid materials based on nucleobases and titanium developed by molecular layer deposition

• Leva Momtazi,
• Henrik H. Sønsteby and
• Ola Nilsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 399–411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.39

• for 15 minutes was measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) (Figure 8). All as-deposited films exhibit high surface roughness; however, the roughness of the Ti-adenine film is caused by small islands appearing on an otherwise almost flat surface. After water treatment, the surface roughness decreases

• containing thymine or titanium oxide. Overall, a more in-depth investigation of the structure of the Ti-thymine films should be performed. No sign of crystallinity was observed for Ti-adenine and Ti-uracil by AFM or XRD. We used XPS as a qualitative investigation of the chemical state in the thin films prior

• 15 minutes of exposure to water, but remained notably lower than what expected for bulk TiO2. It is obvious that the nucleobases leached out from the film, probably leaving a collapsed structure high in TiO2 content. The AFM analysis indicates a porous structure (Figure 8b), however, attempts of

Nitrous oxide as an effective AFM tip functionalization: a comparative study

• Taras Chutora,
• Bruno de la Torre,
• Pingo Mutombo,
• Jack Hellerstedt,
• Jaromír Kopeček,
• Pavel Jelínek and
• Martin Švec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 315–321, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.30

• apexes. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; Au(111); carbon monoxide; functionalization; high resolution; nitrous oxide; submolecular resolution; Introduction Frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy (AFM) has become the tool of choice for the characterization of molecules on the atomic scale

• resolution. The characteristics of each type of tip termination, such as chemical structure or internal charge distribution, are extremely important for the AFM contrast, distortions in the molecule images, and spatial resolution [8][27][28]. The tip-terminating particle also significantly affects the

• formation, the metallic tip (pre-treated by a gentle indentation into the substrate) was functionalized by an impurity CO molecule, which significantly improved the resolution in both STM and AFM. We performed high-resolution AFM/STM measurements on various clusters (comparable to the inset of Figure 1a

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

• atomic force microscope (AFM). As reference samples, we use a bulk single crystalline silicon. These samples before irradiation were etched in 10% HF solution to remove a surficial thin oxide layer. Both sets of the samples were irradiated with the cluster beam at a right angle to the plane of the

• surface, with energy in the range of 10.4–69 keV and dose of 7.2 × 1014–2.3 × 1016 cluster/cm2 at room temperature. The sputtering depth and surface roughness RRMS (root mean squared roughness) were monitored by AFM with a Shimadzu SPM-9500 J3 device, operated in tapping mode with a measuring area of 7

• huge increase of the surface roughness after the bombardment, from an initial roughness RRMS = 6.7 nm up to a few hundreds of nanometers, which complicates the depth measurement by AFM. We explain the increase of the sputtering yield of the nanopowder sample, in comparison with the bulk Si, by the

Pull-off and friction forces of micropatterned elastomers on soft substrates: the effects of pattern length scale and stiffness

• Peter van Assenbergh,
• Marike Fokker,
• Julian Langowski,
• Jan van Esch,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Dimitra Dodou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 79–94, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.8

• adhesives were fabricated from colloidal templates, as shown in Figure 1 and explained in the Experimental section. For the micropatterns of dimples from sub-microscale particles, the packing and size of the obtained dimples was homogeneous, as confirmed by AFM and SEM (Figure 2). AFM measurements further

• samples from sub-microscale particles were characterized with atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Monolayers and samples from microscale particles were characterized with optical microscopy and SEM. The elastic modulus of the fabricated micropatterns

Threshold voltage decrease in a thermotropic nematic liquid crystal doped with graphene oxide flakes

• Mateusz Mrukiewicz,
• Krystian Kowiorski,
• Paweł Perkowski,
• Rafał Mazur and
• Małgorzata Djas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 71–78, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.7

• , electric anisotropy, splay elastic constant, switch-on time, and switch-off time. The shape and dimensions of the GO flakes were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The influence of the GO concentration on the physical properties and switching process in the

• μm while the standard deviation (SD) was equal to 0.543 μm (Figure 1b). The calculations were done using ImageJ software (V. 1.52a). The thickness of the GO flake samples was measured using a MFP 3D BIO (Asylum Research/Oxford Instruments) atomic force microscope (AFM) working in semi-contact regime

• <10 nm. The AFM examination was carried out in air, under ambient conditions. The data analysis was conducted with IgorPro (V. 6.17, professional, dedicated software provided by the microscope producer). The measured thickness was around 1–2 nm (Figure 2b), which corresponds to 2–4 single layers of

Characterization and influence of hydroxyapatite nanopowders on living cells

• Przemyslaw Oberbek,
• Tomasz Bolek,
• Adrian Chlanda,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Sylwia Kusnieruk,
• Julia Rogowska-Tylman,
• Ganna Nechyporenko,
• Viktor Zinchenko,
• Wojciech Swieszkowski and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3079–3094, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.286

• done taking into account at least 15 different agglomerates for each sample. Atomic force microscopy Atomic force microscope (AFM) was used for topography imaging, surface evaluation at the nanoscale and evaluation of the particle shapes [35]. The sample preparation protocol was as follows: A water

• taken with 0.8 Hz scan rate using a silicon probe (k = 40 N/m, r = 10 nm) from Bruker AFM Probes [36]. Image analysis and measurement of length, width and height of the HAp particles was performed with the Gwyddion software [37]. The tip-broadening error was removed by using a method described by Kacher

• given by the manufacturers. Microscopy observations TEM micrographs (Figure 2) combined with the 3D aspect ratio calculated from AFM measurements allowed us to evaluate the shape of the particles. In general, the smaller a particle was, the more elongated was its shape. CaHAP300 and CaHFAP300 were the

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

• conditions are fulfilled by electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) [18][19]. EFM is an atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based electrostatic method in which a conductive tip and a metallic sample holder are used. The probe-to-stage system is electrically polarized for the detection of electrostatic forces or force

• best fitted the experimental results, as indicated by the 4.6% total error compared with the simulations (Figure 6). Errors were measured as follows: Reference polystyrene sample The EFM and AFM images of the reference PS sample (Figure 7a,c) were used to extract the average topography and EFM cross

• permittivity of 2.6 was obtained that fit with the experimental data (0.08% error) (Table 1). Step A: PS + 100 nm Al2O3 and PS + 100 nm SiO2 (shell calibration) In step A (Figure 5 – shell calibration), the average topography profiles obtained by AFM image analysis (Figure 8a) between PS + 100 nm Al2O3 and PS

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

• generator was used to write the designed domain shapes and patterns within the continuous thin film. MFM characterization MFM measurements were performed by a Nanosurf Flex-AFM with C3000 controller in tapping/lift mode with a lift height of 80 nm, a peak-to-peak amplitude of 80 nm and a pixel size of 20 nm

Investigation of CVD graphene as-grown on Cu foil using simultaneous scanning tunneling/atomic force microscopy

• Majid Fazeli Jadidi,
• Umut Kamber,
• Oğuzhan Gürlü and
• H. Özgür Özer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2953–2959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.274

• Majid Fazeli Jadidi Umut Kamber Oguzhan Gurlu H. Ozgur Ozer Department of Physics Engineering, İstanbul Technical University, 34469, İstanbul, Turkey 10.3762/bjnano.9.274 Abstract Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of graphene reveal either a triangular

• an inequivalent electronic structure in HOPG or multilayer graphene due to the presence of a carbon atom or a hollow site underneath. In this work, we report small-amplitude, simultaneous STM/AFM imaging using a metallic (tungsten) tip, of the graphene surface as-grown by chemical vapor deposition

• /hollow sites. We obtained different contrast between force and STM topography images for atomic features. A honeycomb pattern showing all six carbon atoms is revealed in AFM images. In one contrast type, simultaneously acquired STM topography revealed hollow sites to be brighter. In another, a triangular

Ternary nanocomposites of reduced graphene oxide, polyaniline and hexaniobate: hierarchical architecture and high polaron formation

• Claudio H. B. Silva,
• Maria Iliut,
• Christopher Muryn,
• Christian Berger,
• Zachary Coldrick,
• Vera R. L. Constantino,
• Marcia L. A. Temperini and
• Aravind Vijayaraghavan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2936–2946, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.272

• shown in Figure 2. AFM images of the rGO-25 sample show particles of well-defined edges and size ranging from 5 to 25 μm. The height profile (Figure 2, right column) shows thickness of ca. 1.0 nm and a surface roughness (RMS) of 0.24 nm for the rGO flake. These results clearly indicate the presence of

• smooth monolayer rGO particles, which are partially restacked when deposited on the Si/SiO2 substrate. The AFM images of the rGO/PANI nanocomposite show similar flake dimensions (ca. 25 μm) as the rGO-25 sample, and no granular particles were observed, as reported for PANI aggregates [36]. On the other

• . Analogously, the AFM images of rGO/PANI/hexNb also indicate the presence of large flakes in the nanocomposite and, as shown by the 5 μm scan-size image (and corresponding height profile), the flake thickness and surface roughness are ca. 19 and ca. 7.2 nm, respectively. These results clearly indicate that the

In situ characterization of nanoscale contaminations adsorbed in air using atomic force microscopy

• Jesús S. Lacasa,
• Lisa Almonte and
• Jaime Colchero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2925–2935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.271

• of clean and well-prepared surfaces. Accordingly, a wealth of experimental techniques have been developed to control and characterize their contamination state [8]. In the present work we propose atomic force microscopy (AFM) [9][10] as a valuable tool to visualize nanoscale surface contamination and

• to quantify its physical properties. The AFM tip–sample system can be considered on the one hand a model system for investigating different nanoscale phenomena, and a nanoscale “laboratory on the tip” on the other [11]. AFM operation is based on the interaction between a sharp tip and the sample to

• order to access material properties (“chemical information”, thus the name spectroscopy) [12]. AFM allows not only the measurement of surface topography, but also the determination of other physical characteristics; in particular electrostatic [13][14][15] and magnetic properties [16][17]. For reliable

Layered calcium phenylphosphonate: a hybrid material for a new generation of nanofillers

• Kateřina Kopecká,
• Ludvík Beneš,
• Klára Melánová,
• Vítězslav Zima,
• Petr Knotek and
• Kateřina Zetková

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2906–2915, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.269

• (AFM) analysis. The samples prepared by the “drop by drop” and “several portions” methods contained thinner particles in comparison those where the portion was all added at once. Nevertheless, as it can be seen in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images (Figure 2) and as was also verified by AFM

• profile of the particles was measured by AFM with a Dimension ICON instrument, Bruker, Germany, in peak force mode with a ScanAsyst tip. The dynamic mechanical properties were measured with a Discovery hybrid rheometer, DHR2, TA Instruments. The experiment was performed in tension mode with a deformation

• “in several portions” methods (CaPhP_s) and “all at once” (CaPhP_a). AFM images illustrating the topology of CaPhP particles prepared by addition of calcium chloride solution: “drop by drop” (CaPhP_d), “in several portions” (CaPhP_s) and “all at once” (CaPhP_a). CaPhP nanoparticles in various solvents

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

• sample preparation. In addition, there are no restrictions on the substrate to be patterned, accommodating everything from flat wafers to AFM tips. Extensive reviews of EBID and EBIE can be found in [47][48][49][50]. Due to the versatility of FEBIP, it has been used for several different applications

• patterning as well as the inspection of the masks before and after etching was done in an FEI Nova Nano Lab 650 SEM. The lateral dimension of the structures was obtained from the SEM images, while the feature height was calculated from the profile of a Bruker Nanoscope V atomic force microscope (AFM). The

• , etched into silicon, resulting in a height ratio of 8, as taken from the AFM profiles in Figure 13, and lines of 9.8 nm width. The combination of high-resolution EBID patterning using multiple electron beams and the pattern transfer into the underlying stamp material allows for the fabrication of high

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

• microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron (XPS and Auger) and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis) as well as contact angle measurements. It was found that different morphologies of the roughened Ag films could be obtained under controlled

• silver films were characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM) in contact mode on a CP-II AFM (Bruker-Veeco) with SiC cantilevers to determine the topography and surface roughness (root mean square roughness, Rq). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the silver films was performed on a Philips XL

• ) reveal black spots on the silver surface that become darker and increase in size with increasing hydrogen plasma treatment time. These areas show the formation of holes in the silver film which deepen and increase in size with increasing hydrogen plasma treatment time. Using AFM (Figure S2, Supporting

Biomimetic surface structures in steel fabricated with femtosecond laser pulses: influence of laser rescanning on morphology and wettability

• Camilo Florian Baron,
• Alexandros Mimidis,
• Daniel Puerto,
• Evangelos Skoulas,
• Emmanuel Stratakis,
• Javier Solis and
• Jan Siegel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2802–2812, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.262

• surfaces were polished obtaining mirror-like quality with an average roughness Ra < 2 nm measured by an atomic force microscope (AFM, Agilent 5100 AFM/SPM in tapping mode). In order to avoid environmental oxidation by humidity, the samples were stored in a desiccator at 30% relative humidity. Before and

Variation of the photoluminescence spectrum of InAs/GaAs heterostructures grown by ion-beam deposition

• Alexander S. Pashchenko,
• Leonid S. Lunin,
• Eleonora M. Danilina and
• Sergei N. Chebotarev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2794–2801, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.261

• . It is seen that there is a decrease of InAs QD density at growth on the GaAs0.95Bi0.05 surface. The AFM analysis showed that the density of QDs in InAs/GaAs0.95Bi0.05 and InAs/GaAs heterosystems was 0.91 × 1010 cm−2 and 1.53 × 1010 cm−2, respectively. Doping GaAs with bismuth is accompanied by an

Low cost tips for tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy fabricated by two-step electrochemical etching of 125 µm diameter gold wires

• Antonino Foti,
• Francesco Barreca,
• Enza Fazio,
• Cristiano D’Andrea,
• Paolo Matteini,
• Onofrio Maria Maragò and
• Pietro Giuseppe Gucciardi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2718–2729, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.254

• ]. The tips efficiently enhance and confine the electromagnetic field at the nanoscale [8][9] or even at sub-nanometer levels [10]. TERS has a sensitivity that can reach the single molecule level [11][12]. TERS setups based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) [1][13], scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [14

• atomic-level resolution. The presence of commercial setups on the market has further increased the application of TERS outside of the traditional chemistry and physics laboratories, suggesting TERS could be used as a future routine characterization tool like AFM, UV–vis, Raman or FTIR spectroscopies. The

• tip [29][30]. TERS tips are nowadays produced by the chemical/electrochemical etching of metal wires [31][32][33][34][35], metal coatings of AFM tips [36][37][38], electroless deposition, [39] galvanic displacement [40] or by advanced nanostructuration techniques such as electron beam induced