Active and fast charge-state switching of single NV centres in diamond by in-plane Al-Schottky junctions

• Christoph Schreyvogel,
• Vladimir Polyakov,
• Sina Burk,
• Helmut Fedder,
• Andrej Denisenko,
• Felipe Fávaro de Oliveira,
• Ralf Wunderlich,
• Jan Meijer,
• Verena Zuerbig,
• Jörg Wrachtrup and
• Christoph E. Nebel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1727–1735, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.165

• channel, NV centres are quenched, i.e., switched to the nonfluorescent state NV+ as proved by PL-intensity mappings which show no bright spots (Figure 1d). For fabricating a two-dimensional Schottky diode structure, aluminium (Al) and gold (Au) contacts with a thickness of 200 nm each were deposited onto

• the diamond surface using photolithography with subsequent thermal evaporation of the metals. Al is a Schottky contact showing a barrier height of 570 meV and Au is an Ohmic contact [18]. The contacts exhibit dimensions of 1 mm × 300 µm and were separated from each other by 400 µm. In order to have a

• defined conductive channel between the Al and Au contacts, the channel region including the contacts were protected with a photoresist and then the whole diamond surface surrounding the channel area were O-terminated via exposition to oxygen plasma. After lift-off process of the photoresist, the

Thickness-modulated tungsten–carbon superconducting nanostructures grown by focused ion beam induced deposition for vortex pinning up to high magnetic fields

• Ismael García Serrano,
• Javier Sesé,
• Isabel Guillamón,
• Hermann Suderow,
• Sebastián Vieira,
• Manuel Ricardo Ibarra and
• José María De Teresa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1698–1708, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.162

• , one sample with 120 nm pitch and two samples with 140 nm pitch. The area of the W–C films is 20 × 5 μm2 and the distance between the voltage probes is 5 μm. The Pt contacts under the superconducting film have been designed to allow for the growth of the W–C film to be started on a flat surface. For

• that, first, substrate FIB milling (200 nm deep and 1 μm wide) is performed in order to dig trenches to be subsequently filled with Pt contacts grown by FIBID using a (CH3)3PtCpCH3 precursor. As the surface of the Pt contacts is at the same height as the substrate’s top surface, the superconducting

• film starts the growth on a flat surface. In the final step, the linear Pt contacts are soldered to the Ti pads by the addition of thick, square, Pt deposits by FIBID. (a) Scheme of the experiment performed to measure the electrical resistance under perpendicular magnetic field. Due to the Lorentz

Analysis of self-heating of thermally assisted spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory

• Austin Deschenes,
• Sadid Muneer,
• Mustafa Akbulut,
• Ali Gokirmak and
• Helena Silva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1676–1683, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.160

• different heat paths through metal and passivation layers, the configurations with passivation–Cu contacts (I, III) are simulated with and without thermal boundary resistances (TBR) applied on the passivation–Cu interfaces. This TBR is modeled as a 1 nm thick virtual layer with a thermal conductivity of

Sb₂S₃ grown by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and its application in a hybrid solar cell

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere,
• Valdek Mikli and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1662–1673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.158

• P3HT layer remained below 400 nm, as estimated from SEM images. The Au layer was deposited onto the P3HT by thermal evaporation of metallic Au for 10 min under a pressure of 2·10−6 Torr through a metal mask with a number of holes that had an area of 1.7 mm2 each. Alternatively, larger contacts of 1 cm2

Nanostructured germanium deposited on heated substrates with enhanced photoelectric properties

• Ionel Stavarache,
• Valentin Adrian Maraloiu,
• Petronela Prepelita and
• Gheorghe Iordache

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1492–1500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.142

• ) observed in the absence of light can be the result of the serial combination of these interface junctions that can act as rectifying diode-like contacts. It is known that the chemical reduction of GeOx plays an important role and represents the major mechanism to produce size-controlled Ge-nps, embedded

Three-gradient regular solution model for simple liquids wetting complex surface topologies

• Sabine Akerboom,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Frans A. M. Leermakers

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1377–1396, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.129

• the dimensionless Flory–Huggins interaction parameter, which is an Archimedean-like parameter needed for unlike contacts: A positive value means that LL contacts and VV ‘contacts’ are favoured over LV ones and this implies a tendency towards demixing. When we assume random mixing (mean-field

• -field approximation is now applied along lattice layers. The angular brackets in the last term indicate that in the interaction term “curvature” information is included, which is needed to evaluate the number of liquid–vacancy contacts in the presence of density gradients. In continuous language, we

Functional diversity of resilin in Arthropoda

• Jan Michels,
• Esther Appel and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1241–1259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.115

• pads on substrates depends on the ability of the pads to adapt to the surface topography. In this context, specific micro- and nanostructures can enhance the quality of the contact [97][98][99][100][101]. In the case of attachment on rough substrates, multiple contacts, being formed by some adhesive

• systems, provide great advantages [102]. The formation of multiple contacts, which contribute to an increase of the overall length of the total peeling line, is facilitated by a hierarchical organisation of the attachment structures [103]. It was shown that the combination of thin tape-like contact tips

• ][107]. As a result of this, the functional advantages achieved through multiple adhesive contacts can be strongly reduced [103]. Accordingly, the composition and the properties of the material of insect adhesive setae represent an optimisation problem. There is evidence that during the evolution

Preparation of alginate–chitosan–cyclodextrin micro- and nanoparticles loaded with anti-tuberculosis compounds

• Albert Ivancic,
• Fliur Macaev,
• Fatma Aksakal,
• Veaceslav Boldescu,
• Serghei Pogrebnoi and
• Gheorghe Duca

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1208–1218, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.112

• interactions with isoconazole. Multiple hydrophobic contacts of amino acids with the inhibitor were indicated by green spheres in Figure 12b. Frontier molecular orbital analyses The analysis of specificity of the enzyme–ligand interaction is closely related to the analysis of frontier orbitals (HOMO and LUMO

In situ characterization of hydrogen absorption in nanoporous palladium produced by dealloying

• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Christopher Wiednig,
• Norbert Enzinger and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1197–1201, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.110

• actuation might influence R: An expansion during hydrogenation may disconnect electrical contacts in the nanoporous network, leading to a resistance increase. Such a mechanical effect would also explain the noisy R-signal due to immediate resistance changes caused by opening/closing connections. Since

Role of solvents in the electronic transport properties of single-molecule junctions

• Katharina Luka-Guth,
• Sebastian Hambsch,
• Andreas Bloch,
• Philipp Ehrenreich,
• Bernd Michael Briechle,
• Filip Kilibarda,
• Torsten Sendler,
• Dmytro Sysoiev,
• Thomas Huhn,
• Artur Erbe and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1055–1067, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.99

• solvents that are commonly used in the field of molecular electronics (ethanol, toluene, mesitylene, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, isopropanol, toluene/tetrahydrofuran mixtures) for the study of single-molecule contacts of functional molecules. We present measurements of the conductance as a function of gap

• conclusions is that stable junctions may form from solvents as well and that both conductance–distance traces and current–voltage characteristics have to be studied to distinguish between contacts of solvent molecules and of molecules under study. Keywords: electrochemical environment; mechanically

• ][8]. A very fruitful method for gathering statistical information on the transport behaviour of single-molecule junctions is the repeated formation and breakage of atomic contacts immersed in a solution containing the molecules under investigation in a suitable solvent. The dissolution of the

Advanced atomic force microscopy techniques III

• Thilo Glatzel and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1052–1054, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.98

• several transitions in the friction coefficient with increasing load have been found on Au(111) in sulfuric acid electrolyte containing Cu ions by Helmut Baltruschat an co-workers [24] and the stiffness of micron-sized sphere-plate contacts was studied by Diethelm Johannsmann et al. by employing high

Reorientation of single-wall carbon nanotubes in negative anisotropy liquid crystals by an electric field

• Amanda García-García,
• Ricardo Vergaz,
• José F. Algorri,
• Gianluigi Zito,
• Teresa Cacace,
• Antigone Marino,
• José M. Otón and
• Morten A. Geday

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 825–833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.74

• could be caused by SWCNTs that do not recover their original planar orientation. As these SWCNTs are in a position perpendicular to the contacts, the electron transport is facilitated by the longitudinal axis. Threshold voltage In order to determine a potential threshold voltage for the SWCNT switching

Assembling semiconducting molecules by covalent attachment to a lamellar crystalline polymer substrate

• Rainhard Machatschek,
• Patrick Ortmann,
• Renate Reiter,
• Stefan Mecking and
• Günter Reiter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 784–798, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.70

• intrinsic electronic properties of a broad range of semiconducting molecules. However, the typically rather small size of polymer single crystals represents a drawback of the method described above. This small size complicates the application of electrical contacts to the device. In order to overcome this

• nanocrystals with packing densities of about 0.78, having a size of several thousand square micrometers. While the application of electrical contacts to these layers may be difficult, these layers of nanocrystals are rather smooth and covered with functional groups allowing for covalent attachment of molecules

Thermo-voltage measurements of atomic contacts at low temperature

• Ayelet Ofarim,
• Bastian Kopp,
• Thomas Möller,
• León Martin,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 767–775, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.68

• atomic-sized gold contacts at low temperature. For these measurements a mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) system is used and a laser source generates a temperature difference of a few kelvins across the junction to create a thermo-voltage. Since the temperature difference enters directly

• measurement of the resistance change due to laser heating of sensor leads on both sides next to the junction. Our results for the measured thermopower are in agreement with recent reports in the literature. Keywords: atomic contacts; finite element simulations; laser heating; low temperature; mechanically

• system [5][6]. S can adopt both signs and typical values for single-atom and single-molecule contacts range from nV per K to several µV per K. So far several approaches for thermo-voltage measurements of atomic-scale devices have been performed successfully [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17

Magnetic switching of nanoscale antidot lattices

• Ulf Wiedwald,
• Joachim Gräfe,
• Kristof M. Lebecki,
• Maxim Skripnik,
• Felix Haering,
• Gisela Schütz,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Eberhard Goering and
• Ulrich Nowak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 733–750, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.65

• contacts serve as electrodes for a maximum probing current of 10 µA to prevent any damage. The used geometry allows conducting two independent four-point resistance measurements simultaneously [29]. Within each half of the antidot array, an antidot crystallite of sufficient size and suitable orientation is

• found by SEM imaging integrated in the FIB device (Zeiss NVision 40 SEM/FIB). The size of the chosen crystallite is critical as it directly determines the length of the FIB milled channel, and thus, the ratio between the electrical resistance originating from this channel and the feeding contacts. In

First-principles study of the structure of water layers on flat and stepped Pb electrodes

• Xiaohang Lin,
• Ferdinand Evers and
• Axel Groß

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 533–543, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.47

• carbonate). The phenomenon has not been understood well so far. As an explanation it was proposed that the solvent would enhance asymmetries in the voltage drop, which could originate from different atomic configurations of the source/drain contacts [3]. (ii) As is well-known, the electrode potential can

• realize a single-atom switch by reversibly manipulating atomic-scale quantum point contacts in an electrochemical environment resulting in a single-atom transistor [4][5][6][7] that exhibits an outstanding stability at room temperature. This opens attractive perspectives to prepare quantum devices based

• electrode/electrolyte interfaces based on first-principles electronic structure calculations. As Pb has been used as one of the metallic electrode materials, we have already studied the Pb self-diffusion on flat and stepped Pb surfaces [13] as this controls the growth mechanism of the contacts. The results

Invariance of molecular charge transport upon changes of extended molecule size and several related issues

• Ioan Bâldea

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 418–431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.37

• density of states at the contacts [21]). Electron correlations, which escape the conventional Landauer framework utilized here, can further enhance the NDR [25][26][27]. Besides finite bandwidth and energy-dependent densities of states, for systems with more than one site, the potential drop across the

• hopping integrals tL,R) are independent of the position (l,r). Condition (ii) is satisfied because does not contain products (e.g., ) mixing operators from different electrodes. Condition (iii) is also satisfied because merely contains products involving nearest neighboring sites at the contacts, such

• within the FBL. Because the quantitative difference between the exact treatment and FBL is the energy dependence of the width functions ΓL,R (or, equivalently, the density of states at the contacts), this finding can be reframed as an indication that achieving NDR effects stronger than obtained so far

Rigid multipodal platforms for metal surfaces

• Michal Valášek,
• Marcin Lindner and
• Marcel Mayor

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 374–405, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.34

• molecules as well as monomolecular layers of ordered platform structures are summarized. The presented multipodal platforms bearing several anchoring groups form considerably more stable molecule–metal contacts than corresponding monopodal analogues and exhibit an enlarged separation of the functional

• through three anchoring groups. An extended study by Katano et al. investigated by UHV-STM analysis at 4.7 K also confirmed the three-point contacts of 17 on Au(111) surfaces and showed that these tripodal molecules form a highly ordered “two-tiered” hierarchical chiral self-assembly on a gold surface [86

Functional fusion of living systems with synthetic electrode interfaces

• Oskar Staufer,
• Sebastian Weber,
• C. Peter Bengtson,
• Hilmar Bading,
• Joachim P. Spatz and
• Amin Rustom

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 296–301, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.27

• homogenous, low defect and parallel-oriented crystal planes were produced by electrodeposition as previously described [1]. This process employed polycarbonate (PC), track-etched filter membranes with a pore density of 1 × 106 pores/cm2 and a pore size of 100 nm (Figure 1a, 1–4). Aluminium (Al) contacts were

• layer of PC via spin-coating (a, 5). Brief etching with NaOH finally exposes the electrode tips (a, 6). (b) Ultrastructural analysis of NEIs. A photograph of a final NEI including the attached Al contacts is shown in (b, 1). SEM analysis of the respective surfaces shows that the 1.57 cm2 deposited area

Case studies on the formation of chalcogenide self-assembled monolayers on surfaces and dissociative processes

• Yongfeng Tong,
• Tingming Jiang,
• Azzedine Bendounan,
• Makri Nimbegondi Kotresh Harish,
• Angelo Giglia,
• Stefan Kubsky,
• Fausto Sirotti,
• Luca Pasquali,
• Srinivasan Sampath and
• Vladimir A. Esaulov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 263–277, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.24

• presence of these reactive channels depends on the preparation method, e.g., vacuum versus liquid phase adsorption [56][57][58], or also deposition onto bulk metal versus evaporation of electrodes onto a molecular layer [64][65]. This point is of much importance when creating contacts to these organic

• view of creation of metal contacts in organic electronic devices. This should be taken into account in general, including the case of evaporative deposition or contact printing [72] by transfer from a stamp. We hope that this report will stimulate further investigations of these reactive processes and

Synthesis and applications of carbon nanomaterials for energy generation and storage

• Marco Notarianni,
• Jinzhang Liu,
• Kristy Vernon and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 149–196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.17

Current-induced runaway vibrations in dehydrogenated graphene nanoribbons

• Rasmus Bjerregaard Christensen,
• Jing-Tao Lü,
• Per Hedegård and
• Mads Brandbyge

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 68–74, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.8

• of atoms is considered in the dynamical region. (b) Electron transmission in a perfect, infinite ribbon (dotted), and with broadened states in the electrodes to mimic metallic contacts with/without dehydrogenation (dashed/full). (Red and green vertical dashed lines indicate the shifts in Fermi energy

Effects of electronic coupling and electrostatic potential on charge transport in carbon-based molecular electronic junctions

• Richard L. McCreery

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 32–46, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.4

• conducting carbon substrate and a carbon/gold top contact have proven to be reproducible and reliable, and will soon enter commercial production in audio processing circuits. The covalent, conjugated bond between one or both sp2-hybridized carbon contacts and an aromatic molecular layer is distinct from the

• coupling between the molecules and the contacts is demonstrated by the formation of hybrid orbitals in the model structure, which have significant electron density on both the graphene and the molecule. The energies of such hybrid orbitals correlate with tunneling barriers determined experimentally, and

• absent only when the two planes are orthogonal. Coupling also results in partial charge transfer between the graphene contacts and the molecular layer, which results in a shift in electrostatic potential which affects the observed tunneling barrier. Although the degree of partial charge transfer is

Evaluation of gas-sensing properties of ZnO nanostructures electrochemically doped with Au nanophases

• Elena Dilonardo,
• Michele Penza,
• Marco Alvisi,
• Cinzia Di Franco,
• Francesco Palmisano,
• Luisa Torsi and
• Nicola Cioffi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 22–31, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.3

• , were redispersed in ACN solution and subsequently drop-casted as sensing layers between the Au contacts of the sensor device. Finally, the device was heated at 300 °C for 2 h, to provide an additional stabilization to the sensor active material. The experimental set up used for gas-sensing measurements

Large area scanning probe microscope in ultra-high vacuum demonstrated for electrostatic force measurements on high-voltage devices

• Urs Gysin,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Thomas Schmölzer,
• Adolf Schöner,
• Sergey Reshanov,
• Holger Bartolf and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2485–2497, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.258

• . The grain seems to be covered by a residual layer partly smearing out the CPD contrast. The PtIr-coated tip is most probably contaminated by a metal oxide cluster (CuO or CrO) due to slight tip–sample contacts before the measurements, such that the work function is around Φtip = 5 eV [40]. Also in