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

• ]. The fabrication of the samples starts by depositing the magnetic multilayer onto 150 nm thick silicon nitride membranes via magnetron sputtering. The membranes are almost transparent for soft X-rays, which are later employed for imaging of the samples. Subsequently, the multilayer film is locally

• significantly reduced as compared to domains in non-irradiated regions, as shown in Figure 5d (at 0 mT). Tailored modification of the magnetic film thus enables the coexistence of two magnetic structures in a checkerboard pattern, revealing different magnetic behavior side by side. The sample was imaged in a

• full applied-field sweep from saturation at positive field to saturation at negative field. During this measurement, images at particular applied fields were recorded (Figure 5). After saturating the magnetic film (at 390 mT, Figure 5a) and reducing the applied field, domains form (180 mT, Figure 5b

Gold(I) N-heterocyclic carbene precursors for focused electron beam-induced deposition

• Cristiano Glessi,
• Aya Mahgoub,
• Cornelis W. Hagen and
• Mats Tilset

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 257–269, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.21

• sublimation apparatus, which was then evacuated and conditioned with Ar or N2 before being evacuated again. The dynamic heating of the sample was carried out at a heating rate of 1 K per 10 min. The sublimation temperature was determined as the point at which the formation of a white film was observed on the

Scanning transmission helium ion microscopy on carbon nanomembranes

• Daniel Emmrich,
• Annalena Wolff,
• Nikolaus Meyerbröker,
• Jörg K. N. Lindner,
• André Beyer and
• Armin Gölzhäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 222–231, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.18

• originate from a molecular thin film, they can be as thin as 1 nm. The conductivity of such membranes is low, which poses a challenge to SE imaging with charged-particle microscopes such as SEM or HIM [24]. This work demonstrates that the holder is easily optimized for such difficult samples. It is possible

• , thin and thick CNMs were transferred onto a 300 nm Au film on a mica substrate for XPS analysis. The thickness was calculated from the attenuation of the Au 4f7/2 photoelectrons by the membrane on top. Details about the calculation can be found in the Supporting Information of the manuscript from

• bands become more pronounced, similar to a film of high-temperature annealed nanographite [33]. It was previously demonstrated in TEM that, at an energy of 80 keV, a graphitization of free-standing amorphous carbon can be induced [34]. It is also known that CNMs can turn from the amorphous state into

TiO_x/Pt₃Ti(111) surface-directed formation of electronically responsive supramolecular assemblies of tungsten oxide clusters

• Marco Moors,
• Yun An,
• Agnieszka Kuc and
• Kirill Yu. Monakhov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 203–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.16

• -wheel-like structural motif. The complex pattern of this hexagonally shaped titanium oxide film is due to the moiré effect on the underlying metallic substrate. Both phases consist of an oxygen-terminated bilayer with a stoichiometric TiO phase [22], such that the structural differences are triggered by

• combination of these two species forms the characteristic stripe pattern of the z’-TiOx phase. Inside the trenches between the stripes, several holes in the film can be found, which are probably caused by the stress release during the film growth. These defects permit a direct contact with the underlying

• interaction with the substrate. The exclusive positioning of the W3O9 clusters on the point defects inside the trenches leads us to the conclusion that the preferred interaction with the metallic substrate below the oxide film compensates any charge injection or removal induced by the STM tip. For that

Imaging of SARS-CoV-2 infected Vero E6 cells by helium ion microscopy

• Natalie Frese,
• Patrick Schmerer,
• Martin Wortmann,
• Matthias Schürmann,
• Matthias König,
• Michael Westphal,
• Friedemann Weber,
• Holger Sudhoff and
• Armin Gölzhäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 172–179, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.13

• topography or material contrast. The deposited carbon film is presumably thinner than typical conductive metal or carbon coatings for SEM imaging, and it does not show any surface masking and clustering as seen on the gold substrate in the upper left of Figure 2b2. The energy of the incident hydrocarbons is

Paper-based triboelectric nanogenerators and their applications: a review

• Jing Han,
• Nuo Xu,
• Yuchen Liang,
• Mei Ding,
• Junyi Zhai,
• Qijun Sun and
• Zhong Lin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 151–171, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.12

• microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (µPADs) [57][58][59][60] and thin-film transistors (TFTs) [61][62][63][64][65] have been widely investigated. Recently, they have also been applied in various energy-related devices [66][67][68]. Although paper is intrinsically insulating, conductive materials (e.g

• kirigami reflector become parallel. By changing the characteristic angle, the deformation angle of the reflective film and the slit patterning can be controlled. The kirigami design in TENGs is a highly promising strategy for energy harvesting due to the introduction of more contact/separation spaces. Guo

• motions, such as stretching, pressing, and twisting due to the thin cutting film design. The schematic structure of K-TENGs and related photographs are illustrated in Figure 7b. The prepared FEP film with a rectangular kirigami pattern was treated by inductively coupled plasma, in which the parameters of

Mapping the local dielectric constant of a biological nanostructured system

• Wescley Walison Valeriano,
• Rodrigo Ribeiro Andrade,
• Juan Pablo Vasco,
• Angelo Malachias,
• Bernardo Ruegger Almeida Neves,
• Paulo Sergio Soares Guimarães and
• Wagner Nunes Rodrigues

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 139–150, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.11

• alumina film disk on gold. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Prof. Angelo Machado (in memoriam) for his generosity and enthusiasm for this work, supplying us with the precious specimens of damselflies studied here. We acknowledge the Center of Microscopy at the Universidade Federal de

A review on the green and sustainable synthesis of silver nanoparticles and one-dimensional silver nanostructures

• Sina Kaabipour and
• Shohreh Hemmati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 102–136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.9

• glasses such as those in the automotive industry, there exists some difficulty in the production of thick films larger than 1 µm because of possible film cracks and shrinkage [233]. In addition to that, the film quality itself depends highly on process and environmental conditions such as temperature and

Bulk chemical composition contrast from attractive forces in AFM force spectroscopy

• Dorothee Silbernagl,
• Media Ghasem Zadeh Khorasani,
• Natalia Cano Murillo,
• Anna Maria Elert and
• Heinz Sturm

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 58–71, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.5

• achieved a lateral atomic resolution, but also enabled the identification of chemical structures down to single atoms. For these remarkable results, the sample has to be very smooth (ideally a crystal plane) and preferably free of an ambient water film (ultra-high vacuum AFM, UHV AFM). Again, these

ZnO and MXenes as electrode materials for supercapacitor devices

• Ameen Uddin Ammar,
• Ipek Deniz Yildirim,
• Feray Bakan and
• Emre Erdem

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 49–57, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.4

• abundant raw materials. Also, it is less harmful to the environment [19]. Miao et al. fabricated 3D porous MXene-rGO films by using a self-propagating approach, which involves great enthalpy change, chain reactions, and drastically propagates onto the entire film in seconds. As a result, a specific

• [33]. Fan et al. synthesized MXene/holey graphene (HGO) films, to be used as electrode material in supercapacitors, through the filtration of alkalized MXene and HGO dispersions. The prepared material, when used as a composite film electrode for supercapacitors, showed a high volumetric capacitance of

Atomic layer deposited films of Al₂O₃ on fluorine-doped tin oxide electrodes: stability and barrier properties

• Hana Krýsová,
• Michael Neumann-Spallart,
• Hana Tarábková,
• Pavel Janda,
• Ladislav Kavan and
• Josef Krýsa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 24–34, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.2

• that of pure FTO is higher than three. This means that there are B-type defects in the barrier film. These defects cause not only the delamination of the Al2O3 film from the FTO substrate, but also a slowdown of the charge-transfer kinetics (accompanied by a strong increase in ΔEpp). The Table 1 shows

• the difference between the blocking properties of Al2O3 layers of various thickness values. The effective pinhole area gradualy decreases with an increase in the thickness values of the Al2O3 layer, reaching 0.24% for a 17 nm thick film. Exposure to NaOH Al2O3 films, of thickness values of 2.5, 5, 10

• and 17 nm, deposited onto FTO substrates were immersed in a 1 M NaOH solution, for 5 min at room temperature. The dissolution of the Al2O3 films was fast and only the thickest (17 nm) Al2O3 film was not completely dissolved (the FTO substrate was still covered) (Figure 3). The electrochemical response

Scanning transmission imaging in the helium ion microscope using a microchannel plate with a delay line detector

• Eduardo Serralta,
• Nico Klingner,
• Olivier De Castro,
• Michael Mousley,
• Santhana Eswara,
• Serge Duarte Pinto,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Gregor Hlawacek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1854–1864, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.167

• available in an open access repository [38]. Results and Discussion Mass-thickness contrast Bright-field and dark-field contrast In Figure 2, we show images of a carbon film under lacey carbon using the SE imaging mode (Figure 2a), BF STIM (Figure 2b), and ADF STIM (Figure 2c). The data for Figure 2b and

• Figure 2c was acquired in a single acquisition after Figure 2a, and the two images were generated selecting from the data two appropriate angular sectors of the detector. The areas of the sample where the carbon film has the lacey carbon on top show different gray levels compared to the areas where there

• is only a homogeneous film. In general, since the average polar angle of scattering increases with the thickness, correctly adjusting the cut-off angle for the BF image can effectively suppress the signal from thicker areas of the sample in the final image. In contrast, in ADF thin areas of the

Self-standing heterostructured NiC_x-NiFe-NC/biochar as a highly efficient cathode for lithium–oxygen batteries

• Shengyu Jing,
• Xu Gong,
• Shan Ji,
• Linhui Jia,
• Bruno G. Pollet,
• Sheng Yan and
• Huagen Liang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1809–1821, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.163

• PANalytical B.V. Empyean X-ray diffractometer with Cu Kα radiation (λ = 1.5406 Å). The surface morphology of the film catalyst was studied via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on a Carl Zeiss Ultra Plus scanning electron microscope. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HR-TEM), and

• ), larger lumps were observed in the SEM image of NiFe-PBA/PP-900 after the first discharge (Figure 7a and Figure 7c). The surfaces of the grape-like particles were completely covered by newly formed Li2O2. It was reported that Li2O2 with a film-like morphology is easily decomposed at a low charge voltage

• in comparison to its crystalline counterpart, since the film-like Li2O2 has an improved ionic conductivity [57]. After the first charge, the obtained SEM images (Figure 7b and Figure 7d) show that most of the newly formed Li2O2 was decomposed. However, a small amount of Li2O2 still remained on the

Molecular dynamics modeling of the influence forming process parameters on the structure and morphology of a superconducting spin valve

• Alexander Vakhrushev,
• Aleksey Fedotov,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Roman Morari and
• Anatolie Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1776–1788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.160

• ferromagnetic layers causes a restructuring of the magnetic moment configuration under low-power magnetic fields and switches the spin valve from a high to a low resistance state. When a superconducting film is used as a magneto-resistive interlayer, a superconducting spin valve is obtained. Furthermore, these

• ), the transparency parameter is TF ≈ 2 and is the highest of all possible metal pairs. It is possible that high transparency is facilitated not only in the mixing layer at the interface between extremely thin film materials, but also by a good matching of the band structures of two metals (see the study

Absorption and photoconductivity spectra of amorphous multilayer structures

• Oxana Iaseniuc and
• Mihail Iovu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1757–1763, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.158

• mono- and bimolecular and that the transport is controlled through multiple trapping processes with exponential distribution of the localized states in the bandgap. Regarding the physics and applications of chalcogenide materials, multilayered amorphous thin-film structures are especially interesting

• measurements; other samples were prepared as granules of small dimensions for vacuum evaporation. For optical and photoelectric measurements, thin film samples of each amorphous material, with thickness values of d = 1000 nm for As0.40S0.30Se0.30, d = 500 nm for Ge0.09As0.09Se0.82, and d = 200 nm for

• ), Ge0.09As0.09Se0.82 (2), As0.40S0.30Se0.30 (3), and the HS As0.40S0.30Se0.30/Ge0.09As0.09Se0.82/Ge0.30As0.04S0.66 (4). The thin film layer Ge0.30As0.04S0.66 with the largest bandgap energy, Eg ≈ 3.0 eV [11], which was placed on the top of the multilayer structure, has a thickness of d ≈ 200 nm and was transparent to

Imaging and milling resolution of light ion beams from helium ion microscopy and FIBs driven by liquid metal alloy ion sources

• Nico Klingner,
• Gregor Hlawacek,
• Paul Mazarov,
• Wolfgang Pilz,
• Fabian Meyer and
• Lothar Bischoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1742–1749, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.156

• ][29] was used. All milling experiments were performed on a 100 nm thin gold film on glass. For measuring the trench width milled into the gold layer, either the same primary ion beam microscope or a scanning electron microscope have been used to image the sputtered trenches. The investigated sources

• are listed in Table 1. Details of fabrication and operation principle are given in the corresponding references. Results and Discussion Resolution values obtained with different light ion species on a Au film are summarized in Table 2. The sputter yields Ytheo for normal incidence based on the work of

PEG/PEI-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes as delivery carriers for doxorubicin: synthesis, characterization, and in vitro evaluation

• Shuoye Yang,
• Zhenwei Wang,
• Yahong Ping,
• Yuying Miao,
• Yongmei Xiao,
• Lingbo Qu,
• Lu Zhang,
• Yuansen Hu and
• Jinshui Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1728–1741, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.155

• was obtained by dialysis and vacuum drying successively as above. This difunctionalized CNT carrier was named CNTs-PEG-PEI. Characterization of nanocarriers Different aqueous dispersions of SWCNTs were dispersed onto holey carbon film on copper grids. The sample morphologies were observed by

Application of contact-resonance AFM methods to polymer samples

• Sebastian Friedrich and
• Brunero Cappella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1714–1727, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.154

• DART measurement leads to a depression of the whole scanned area, eventually accompanied by the formation of pile-ups. For example, measurements on a 120 nm thick PS film with a static force higher than ca. 250 nN leave depressions that are visible even with an optical microscope, and the depth of

• which increases with increasing static force (see Supporting Information File 1, Figure S1). Such plastic deformations of the polymer film engender changes of its mechanical properties, since compression leads to an increase of the stiffness. Moreover, if mobile polymer chains are pushed aside, as it is

• the case for PnBMA, the layer thickness is reduced, also leading to an increase of the stiffness and to severe changes of the sample [31]. In extreme cases, when the polymer film is completely worn, the AFM tip is in contact with the blank substrate and measures its properties, instead of those of the

Out-of-plane surface patterning by subsurface processing of polymer substrates with focused ion beams

• Serguei Chiriaev,
• Luciana Tavares,
• Vadzim Adashkevich,
• Arkadiusz J. Goszczak and
• Horst-Günter Rubahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1693–1703, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.151

• -plane features, at the nanoscale, of the pre-deposited films. Ion irradiation of the Au-coated samples results in delamination, bulging, and perforation of the Au film, which is attributed to the accumulation of gases from radiolysis at the film–substrate interface. The irradiation with Ne+ and Ga+ ions

• destroys the films and roughens the surface due to dominating sputtering processes. A very different behavior, resulting in the formation of complex, multiscale 3D patterns, is observed for polydimethylsiloxane samples. The roles of the metal film structure, elastic properties of the polymer substrate, and

• polymer bulk [7]. In fact, the method utilizes ion energy losses to manipulate the surface morphology by means of radiation damage generated in the substrate bulk and minimizes the surface damage resulting from sputtering. This leaves the thin films and the prefabricated thin-film nanostructures on the

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

• between 1,250 and 1,650 cm−1 [41][42][43]. The spectral positions of most of these modes are about constant for PTCDA adsorbed on different substrates [41] or for different film thicknesses [42]. An interesting exception was observed for PTCDA on Ag(111) [42] for the breathing mode of the central carbon

Piezoelectric sensor based on graphene-doped PVDF nanofibers for sign language translation

• Shuai Yang,
• Xiaojing Cui,
• Rui Guo,
• Zhiyi Zhang,
• Shengbo Sang and
• Hulin Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1655–1662, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.148

• , and 1.0 wt %. Figure 2b shows SEM images after doping with different concentrations. It can be found that all spinning solutions yield a uniform fiber film without GR agglomeration after electrospinning. Figure 2c shows the FTIR spectra of samples with different doping concentrations. Further, XRD was

Selective detection of complex gas mixtures using point contacts: concept, method and tools

• Alexander P. Pospelov,
• Victor I. Belan,
• Dmytro O. Harbuz,
• Volodymyr L. Vakula,
• Lyudmila V. Kamarchuk,
• Yuliya V. Volkova and
• Gennadii V. Kamarchuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1631–1643, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.146

• the sensing element. A condensate film formed on the gas-sensing surface switches on the autonomous power supply of the sensing element, enabling the observation and measurement of the dynamics of resistance variation during the exposure and relaxation periods. This is due to the fact that, in the

• process of exposure, components of the exhaled breath diffuse through the condensate film to the surfaces of the conduction channels of the point-contact matrix. This impacts the resistance characteristics of each one of the point-contact nanostructures and, as a result, the resistance of the whole matrix

PTCDA adsorption on CaF₂ thin films

• Philipp Rahe

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

• 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

• ); scanning tunnelling microscopy; Introduction The study of molecular adsorption on thin insulating films is motivated by the possibility to investigate and utilise molecular properties in their largely undisturbed state [1]. Molecule–thin film insulator interfaces are additionally of central importance in

• 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

Oxidation of Au/Ag films by oxygen plasma: phase separation and generation of nanoporosity

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Said A. Mansour,
• Mujaheed Pasha,
• Atef Zekri,
• Janarthanan Ponraj,
• Akshath Shetty and
• Yousef Haik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1608–1614, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.143

• silver and gold. In addition, it was shown that the preferential oxidation of silver resulted in a solid-state diffusion of silver toward the surface where it oxidized and formed nanoporous microspheres. The gold phase remaining in the film exhibited nanoporosity due to the injected vacancies at the

• . Interestingly, these microspheres do not cover the entire film surface but are rather randomly distributed over the surface. Moreover, when examining the surface an increase in porosity is noticed, probably as a consequence of the decrease in film density due to the migration of the oxidized silver toward the

• nanospheres (Figure 2d). By further increasing the oxidation time to 30 min, an increase in microsphere size and number is seen at the surface (Figure 2e,f). The evolution of film thickness was examined by SEM cross-section imaging (Figure 3). The results show that the as-grown films exhibit a columnar

High-responsivity hybrid α-Ag₂S/Si photodetector prepared by pulsed laser ablation in liquid

• Raid A. Ismail,
• Hanan A. Rawdhan and
• Duha S. Ahmed

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1596–1607, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.142

• , a SiO2 thin film was grown on the silicon substrate before Ag2S deposition through rapid thermal oxidation (RTO) at a temperature of 950 °C for 25 s, and then HF etchant was used to open a Si window on SiO2. The experimental details regarding the RTO process are presented elsewhere [20]. To

• investigate the optoelectronic properties of the Ag2S/Si photodetector, ohmic contacts were made by thermally evaporating In and Al films on the nanostructured Ag2S film and the back side of the silicon substrate, respectively, as shown in Figure 2. The sensitive area of the planar photodetector was 1.5 cm2