Spatial mapping of photovoltage and light-induced displacement of on-chip coupled piezo/photodiodes by Kelvin probe force microscopy under modulated illumination

• Zeinab Eftekhari,
• Nasim Rezaei,
• Hidde Stokkel,
• Jian-Yao Zheng,
• Andrea Cerreta,
• Ilka Hermes,
• Minh Nguyen,
• Guus Rijnders and
• Rebecca Saive

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1059–1067, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.87

• these micro/nano devices is to scrutinize their structure and the interaction between their different components. This can be done by high-resolution characterization techniques that simultaneously probe dynamic properties of different parts of the device. This enables the decoupling of the roles of

Numerical modeling of a multi-frequency receiving system based on an array of dipole antennas for LSPE-SWIPE

• Alexander V. Chiginev,
• Anton V. Blagodatkin,
• Dmitrii A. Pimanov,
• Ekaterina A. Matrozova,
• Anna V. Gordeeva,
• Andrey L. Pankratov and
• Leonid S. Kuzmin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 865–872, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.77

• electronic subsystem of the CEB absorber [6][7][8]. Another key advantage for balloon and space missions is the high immunity of CEB against cosmic rays [9] due to a double protection given by the extremely small volume of the absorber and decoupling of electron and phonon systems. One of the advantages of

Topographic signatures and manipulations of Fe atoms, CO molecules and NaCl islands on superconducting Pb(111)

• Carl Drechsel,
• Philipp D’Astolfo,
• Jung-Ching Liu,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Rémy Pawlak and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1–9, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.1

• demonstrated. We show a general propensity of these adsorbates to diffuse at low temperature under gentle scanning conditions. Our findings provide new insights into high-resolution probe microscopy imaging with terminated tips, decoupling atoms and molecules by NaCl islands or tip-induced lateral manipulation

• possibility to tune the magnetic anisotropy of a single porphyrin molecule by perturbing its ligand field with the STM probe [39][40]. These results not only suggest the importance of future manipulations experiments, but also shed new lights into the potential of decoupling atoms and molecules electronically

• believe that our results help to identify these adsorbates and constitute an important step for future experiments to perform high-resolution STM/AFM imaging with CO-terminated tips or in the electronic decoupling of atoms and molecules from the prototypical Pb(111) superconducting surface. Experimental

Two dynamic modes to streamline challenging atomic force microscopy measurements

• Alexei G. Temiryazev,
• Andrey V. Krayev and
• Marina P. Temiryazeva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1226–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.90

• related to changing the scanning procedure itself. Vertical mode The vertical mode (VM) is similar to amplitude modulation, that is, the probe oscillates near the resonant frequency, the driving frequency and power of the piezoelectric transducer are fixed. A key element of VM is a complete decoupling of

Impact of electron–phonon coupling on electron transport through T-shaped arrangements of quantum dots in the Kondo regime

• Patryk Florków and
• Stanisław Lipiński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1209–1225, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.89

• ]. A very strong coupling regime is usually described starting from the infinite coupling solution and then performing perturbation expansion in terms of 1/λ [69]. Analogous unitary transformations decoupling the entanglement of electrons and phonons in TQD systems have the same form, but again without

• solution with two bosonic amplitudes and a vanishing rest of the amplitudes. The found SB renormailzation factor z (Equation 12) is equal to zero, which indicates vanishing of the Kondo scale, that is, the destruction of Kondo correlations at any finite temperature and decoupling of the interacting dots

Molecular assemblies on surfaces: towards physical and electronic decoupling of organic molecules

• Sabine Maier and
• Meike Stöhr

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 950–956, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.71

• Sabine Maier Meike Stohr Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erwin-Rommel-Str. 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, Netherlands 10.3762/bjnano.12.71 Keywords: decoupling

• also become distorted, electronic states may be significantly broadened and shifted, and vibronic states may even be quenched. Decoupling strategies offer unique opportunities to reduce these (strong) interactions. In the following, recent progress to decouple both single molecules and molecular

• assemblies physically and electronically from a (strongly) interacting support is briefly reviewed. The molecule–substrate decoupling can either be achieved by suitable molecular design or manipulation of the molecular building blocks, or passivation of the substrate. Molecular engineering approaches include

Local stiffness and work function variations of hexagonal boron nitride on Cu(111)

• Abhishek Grewal,
• Yuqi Wang,
• Matthias Münks,
• Klaus Kern and
• Markus Ternes

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 559–565, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.46

• materials at the nanoscale. In this work, we study hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), an atomically thin 2D layer, that is van der Waals-coupled to a Cu(111) surface. The system is of interest as a decoupling layer for functional 2D heterostructures due to the preservation of the h-BN bandgap and as a template

• -BN/Cu(111) substrate. Keywords: decoupling layers; hexagonal boron nitride; local stiffness; Moiré superstructure; work function variation; Introduction Two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is among the list of materials that garnered tremendous interest following the exfoliation of mono

Influence of electrospray deposition on C₆₀ molecular assemblies

• Antoine Hinaut,
• Sebastian Scherb,
• Sara Freund,
• Zhao Liu,
• Thilo Glatzel and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 552–558, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.45

• microscope (nc-AFM) working at room temperature to study formation and shape of C60 islands on three substrates with different intrinsic properties. These are, first, Au(111), a metal surface widely used in SPM studies, second, KBr(001), a bulk insulator allowing for the decoupling of molecular species and

Reconstruction of a 2D layer of KBr on Ir(111) and electromechanical alteration by graphene

• Zhao Liu,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Stefan Peeters,
• Sebastian Scherb,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Maria Clelia Righi and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 432–439, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.35

• reduced by the decoupling effect of graphene, thus yielding different electrical and mechanical properties of the top KBr layer. Keywords: DFT; graphene; Ir(111); KBr; KPFM; nc-AFM; surface reconstruction; Introduction Many two-dimensional (2D) materials have excellent optical, mechanical

• intercalation of a third material between a substrate and a 2D layer can be applied to tune the physical properties [13][14][15][16][17]. Schulzendorf et al. reported the electrical decoupling of graphene islands by the intercalation of single layers of KBr between the Cu(111) metal substrate and graphene

• , resulting in quasi free-standing graphene layers [18]. Alkali halide layers are frequently used as decoupling layers in surface science [19][20][21][22]. They are reported to form single- or double-layer islands with a typical cubic structure on single-crystalline transition metal surfaces [23][24

The patterning toolbox FIB-o-mat: Exploiting the full potential of focused helium ions for nanofabrication

• Victor Deinhart,
• Lisa-Marie Kern,
• Jan N. Kirchhof,
• Sabrina Juergensen,
• Joris Sturm,
• Enno Krauss,
• Thorsten Feichtner,
• Sviatoslav Kovalchuk,
• Michael Schneider,
• Dieter Engel,
• Bastian Pfau,
• Bert Hecht,
• Kirill I. Bolotin,
• Stephanie Reich and
• Katja Höflich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 304–318, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.25

• 1.3 μm at a wavelength of 632 nm was directed onto the central region of the resonator. A numerical description of the locally heated resonator was carried out by finite element modeling. The obtained heat map shows good thermal decoupling of the trampoline geometry with a large gradient. The central

Extended iron phthalocyanine islands self-assembled on a Ge(001):H surface

• Rafal Zuzak,
• Marek Szymonski and
• Szymon Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 232–241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.19

• van der Waals interactions [7], but the lack of a gap results in broadening and shifting of the molecular resonances. In recent years, it has been proposed to add a buffer layer between the metallic substrate and the molecules of interest [8][9]. This approach allows for the decoupling of the

• the passivation of semiconducting materials, which removes surface dangling bonds and significantly reduces surface reactivity, may also provide a sufficiently insulating layer for an efficient decoupling of molecular structures from the substrate influence. Among such surfaces, hydrogen-passivated Si

The influence of an interfacial hBN layer on the fluorescence of an organic molecule

• Christine Brülke,
• Oliver Bauer and
• Moritz M. Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1663–1684, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.149

• the optical excitation can occur. The different FL lines can be ascribed to different environments of the adsorption sites, namely molecules adsorbed at surface defects, in large ordered domains, and located in the second layer. Keywords: decoupling; fluorescence; hexagonal boron nitride; 3,4,9,10

• layer is to achieve a separation or “decoupling” of the two adjacent layers. Here, the term decoupling refers to the spatial separation of the electronic states of the molecules and those of the underlying metal, which leads to unperturbed molecular properties [4]. A scientifically relevant question is

• to which extent decoupling of the organic molecules from a metal electrode is achieved when a 2DM layer in the limit of a single interfacial layer, for example, a monolayer of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), is used. Such a decoupling is achieved when the wave functions of the metal are spatially

PTCDA adsorption on CaF₂ thin films

• Philipp Rahe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1615–1622, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.144

• Philipp Rahe Fachbereich Physik, Universität Osnabrück, Barbarastrasse 7, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.11.144 Abstract Thin insulating films are commonly employed for the electronic decoupling of molecules as they enable a preservation of the intrinsic molecular electronic

• on CaF2(111) of nearly flat-lying PTCDA molecules with two oxygen atoms displaced towards calcium surface ions. This geometry is in agreement with the experimental observations. Keywords: calcium difluoride; decoupling; insulating thin film; 3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA

• modern applications, for example as a critical component in organic thin-film transistors [2]. However, and despite the success of using thin insulating NaCl films for molecular decoupling [3], it is now understood that ultrathin layers are often not sufficient to truly insulate a molecular assembly. To

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

• , an effective electronic decoupling from the metal substrate is achieved. However, on the 1BL film, Co-DPP molecules are sufficiently mobile at 300 K and coalesce to self-assembled molecular islands when cooled to 80 K despite their rather weak intermolecular interaction. In contrast, on the 2BL film

• paper is to find the adsorption geometry of the two molecules, to demonstrate electronic decoupling from the supporting Ir substrate, and to reveal the relevant energetic hierarchy that may lead to self-assembly on the particular oxide surfaces. Experimental All experiments were performed in ultra-high

• any commensurate or incommensurate self-assembly structure is prevented on 1BL CoO. Finally, to investigate the degree of electronic decoupling, in Figure 8 we compare the PDOS for the free molecule of 1 and its adsorbed state on 1BL, 2BL CoO, and on Ir(100). The PDOS on Ir(100) shows significant

Controlling the electronic and physical coupling on dielectric thin films

• Philipp Hurdax,
• Michael Hollerer,
• Larissa Egger,
• Georg Koller,
• Xiaosheng Yang,
• Anja Haags,
• Serguei Soubatch,
• Frank Stefan Tautz,
• Mathias Richter,
• Alexander Gottwald,
• Peter Puschnig,
• Martin Sterrer and
• Michael G. Ramsey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1492–1503, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.132

• ), 10587 Berlin, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.11.132 Abstract Ultrathin dielectric/insulating films on metals are often used as decoupling layers to allow for the study of the electronic properties of adsorbed molecules without electronic interference from the underlying metal substrate. However, the presence

• of such decoupling layers may effectively change the electron donating properties of the substrate, for example, by lowering its work function and thus enhancing the charging of the molecular adsorbate layer through electron tunneling. Here, an experimental study of the charging of para-sexiphenyl

• : decoupling; integer charge transfer; organic films; para-sexiphenyl; thin dielectric film; Introduction Since the first scanning tunneling microscope (STM) imaging of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of pentacene (5A) on NaCl/Cu(111) was

Self-assembly and spectroscopic fingerprints of photoactive pyrenyl tectons on hBN/Cu(111)

• Domenik M. Zimmermann,
• Knud Seufert,
• Luka Ðorđević,
• Tobias Hoh,
• Sushobhan Joshi,
• Tomas Marangoni,
• Davide Bonifazi and
• Willi Auwärter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1470–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.130

• . Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) measurements of the pyrene derivatives adsorbed on a Cu(111)-supported hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) decoupling layer provided access to spatially and energetically resolved molecular electronic states. We demonstrate that the pyrene electronic gap

• properties in organic layers relied on bulk insulator supports [14][15][16]. As a promising alternative to bulk insulators, ultrathin dielectric films can act as decoupling layers but maintain the possibility to perform STM and STS measurements [17]. Atomically-thin hBN sheets attracted considerable interest

• as such spacer layers [18] and can promote site-dependent decoupling and adsorption [19][20], yielding access to optical transitions [21] as well as allowing for orbital-resolved STM imaging [19][21][22][23]. For instance, hBN/Cu(111) [24][25][26][27] features a work function template with a moiré

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

• . Keywords: decoupling; fluorination; metal–organic interfaces; organic pi-conjugated molecules; X-ray standing wave technique; Introduction The performance of organic (opto)electronic devices is strongly affected by the energy level alignment at the various interfaces in such devices [1][2][3

• , induction and electrostatic contributions to the solid state polarization, i.e., a mutual compensation of different mechanisms. Our results show that the rationale of “decoupling by fluorination” required a threshold of organic–metal interaction strength, as can be seen by the monolayers of PEN, F4PEN and

Cryogenic low-noise amplifiers for measurements with superconducting detectors

• Ilya L. Novikov,
• Boris I. Ivanov,
• Dmitri V. Ponomarev and
• Aleksey G. Vostretsov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1316–1320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.115

• voltage sources. The resistors R1 and R2 are the load resistors of the collector circuits, and the capacitor C5 is the decoupling output capacitor, which has the unwanted effect of reducing the frequency bandwidth at low frequencies. The resistors used in the cryogenic amplifier are MELF-type resistors

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

• formation by acting as a physical barrier between the substrate and the assembling moiety, buffer layers are also widely used to study intrinsic electronic properties of functional organic systems such as organic semiconductors [32][33] and films of 1D/2D polymers [34][35][36][37] via electronic decoupling

• . Alkane buffer layers have been employed as efficient electronic decoupling platforms for studying the intrinsic electronic properties of graphene and fullerenes [38]. Apart from alkane derivatives, inorganic systems such as chemisorbed iodine layers [34][35][36][37], and ultrathin layers of KCl [39

• diffusion on buffer layers compared to that on pristine unmodified solid substrates. The result could be a selection of a polymorph that is otherwise not obtained under ‘normal’ experimental conditions. The decoupling effects could be significant especially for organic building blocks substituted with long

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

• atomically thin h-BN interlayer to investigate its possible decoupling effect. To this end, we use in situ differential reflectance spectroscopy as an established method to distinguish between hybridized and decoupled molecules. By inserting an h-BN interlayer we fabricate a buried interface and show that

• n-type contact for future molecular electronic devices. Keywords: buried interface; decoupling; hexagonal boron nitride; hybridization; tetraphenyldibenzoperiflanthene (DBP); two-dimensional materials; Introduction The interfaces between organic molecules and metal contacts play a crucial role in

• on metal single crystals are the high crystal quality, chemical inertness and the wide band gap of approx. 6 eV, which apparently renders h-BN a promising candidate for the decoupling of highly ordered molecular films [9][10]. However, indications for a significant hybridization of organic molecules

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

• ). The molecule therefore adopts a lander configuration that supposedly is beneficial to the electronic decoupling of its backbone from the substrate it is adsorbed to. Moreover, a twisted tetracene backbone (Figure 1c) is energetically more favorable than its planar, i.e., nontwisted, geometry (Figure

• progressive reduction of the molecule–surface hybridization can be achieved by using inert metal substrates, Au rather than Pt, and by introducing a two-dimensional material, e.g., graphene, as a buffer layer between the adsorbed molecule and the metal. The degree of decoupling can be judged by the molecule

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

• screening by the substrate electrons. As a result, the energy levels are significantly broadened and molecular properties, such as vibrations are hidden within the spectral line shapes. Insertion of thin decoupling layers reduces the line widths and may give access to the resolution of electronic and

• the modes with strong electron–phonon coupling. Keywords: decoupling layer; molybdenum disulfide (MoS2); scanning tunneling microscopy, tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ); vibronic states; Introduction When molecules are adsorbed on metal surfaces, their electronic states are strongly perturbed by

• 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

Hexagonal boron nitride: a review of the emerging material platform for single-photon sources and the spin–photon interface

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Faraz A. Inam,
• Shin-ichiro Sato and
• Alberto Boretti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 740–769, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.61

Nonequilibrium Kondo effect in a graphene-coupled quantum dot in the presence of a magnetic field

• Levente Máthé and
• Ioan Grosu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 225–239, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.17

• decoupling scheme [47] within the framework of the Meir approximation [11]. The computational procedure is presented in Supporting Information File 1, Appendix A. We obtain following Green’s function of the QD: where we define the noninteracting tunneling self-energy as: and introduce a dimensionless

• derive average values of the mixing operators and which appear in the retarded Green’s function (see Supporting Information File 1, Appendix A). The Green’s function has to be calculated taking into account new higher-order correlation functions resulting from a more accurate decoupling scheme [16

• ]. This decoupling scheme yields a TK that does not vanish at the particle–hole symmetry point within the EOM method of QDs with metallic electrodes. Results and Discussion In this section, we present our numerical results on the graphene-based QD system. In order to simplify the numerical calculations

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond for nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging applications

• Alberto Boretti,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Jonathan Blackledge and
• Stefania Castelletto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2128–2151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.207

• detected time window is optimized to obtain a better SNR and dynamical decoupling sequences are used to increase the coherence time of the spin sensor by suppressing spin decoherence due to the environment. This increases the sensitivity in the magnetic field amplitude measurements. Dynamical decoupling

• measurement of the spin–spin relaxation T2 time [28]) and universal dynamic decoupling protocols [12][42]. These pulsed sequences are used to increase sensitivity to the point of measuring Larmor frequencies of nuclear spins [12]. Nanoscale MRI frequency encoding is used for coherent control and the site

• biological samples, but in general, they suffer from a short coherence time T2. This limits their applications in DC and AC magnetometry. It was understood that high-purity ND can accommodate record-long NV T2 times of >60 μs, albeit observed via universal dynamical decoupling [47]. The main decoherence