Controllable physicochemical properties of WO_x thin films grown under glancing angle

• Rupam Mandal,
• Aparajita Mandal,
• Alapan Dutta,
• Rengasamy Sivakumar,
• Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava and
• Tapobrata Som

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 350–359, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.31

• . It is observed that the as-deposited NS-WOx/p-Si heterostructures are quasi-ohmic in nature. The annealed counterparts exhibit a relatively higher rectification, which points towards a possible defect-dependent Fermi level pinning at the hetero-interface. Overall, our systematic experimental

• 6 to 10 nm for both the as-deposited and annealed films (Figure 6a). It may arise from Fermi level de-pinning at the NS-WOx/p-Si heterojunction when the film thickness increases to 10 nm. To understand this behaviour, in the I–V-measurement configuration (Figure 6a, inset), the WOx film can be

• regarded as an interlayer between the p-Si substrate and the Ag electrode. The glancing angle (87°) growth of a 6 nm film is likely to sustain a large number of metal (Ag)-induced gap states at the NS-WOx/p-Si interface, leading to Fermi level pinning, the degree of pinning being directly related to film

Graphene removal by water-assisted focused electron-beam-induced etching – unveiling the dose and dwell time impact on the etch profile and topographical changes in SiO₂ substrates

• Aleksandra Szkudlarek,
• Jan M. Michalik,
• Inés Serrano-Esparza,
• Zdeněk Nováček,
• Veronika Novotná,
• Piotr Ozga,
• Czesław Kapusta and
• José María De Teresa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 190–198, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.18

• deposit, and at a current of 245 pA (higher electron flux) the indent shape. This controllable switching between the hydrocarbons pinning and etching caused by increasing electron flux was explained using the continuum model. The model is based on the dissociation process of adsorbed molecules by

Dual-heterodyne Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Fatima Husainy,
• Dmitry Aldakov and
• Cyril Aumaître

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1068–1084, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.88

Cross-sectional Kelvin probe force microscopy on III–V epitaxial multilayer stacks: challenges and perspectives

• Mattia da Lisca,
• José Alvarez,
• James P. Connolly,
• Nicolas Vaissiere,
• Karim Mekhazni,
• Jean Decobert and
• Jean-Paul Kleider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 725–737, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.59

• reported in Figure 6. In this specific case, the charge neutrality level of surface defects is set at mid-gap. Thus, increasing the surface defect densities will produce a pinning of the Fermi level at the neutrality level of the surface states and the energy of valence and conduction bands will appear

Controllable two- and three-state magnetization switching in single-layer epitaxial Pd_1−xFe_x films and an epitaxial Pd_0.92Fe_0.08/Ag/Pd_0.96Fe_0.04 heterostructure

• Igor V. Yanilkin,
• Amir I. Gumarov,
• Gulnaz F. Gizzatullina,
• Roman V. Yusupov and
• Lenar R. Tagirov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 334–343, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.28

• behavior was proposed in [21]. It suggested the successive movements of two 90° domain walls. The values of the coercive fields are determined by the conditions when the energy gain due to a moment rotation overcomes the wall pinning energy: For the Pd0.92Fe0.08 film, this model describes well the

• this situation, it is no longer possible to assert that the pinning energy is constant since it decreases with decreasing the angle difference in the domain wall. For the field directions close to the hard axis (for example, at φH = 87–90°), it is generally difficult to describe the magnetization

• dependences of Hc(φH), Figure 7a, allows us to conclude that the pinning energy for the Pd0.94Fe0.04 film is much lower (about ε90deg ≈ 1.8 kerg/cm3) than for the Pd0.92Fe0.08 film (ε90deg ≈ 6 kerg/cm3). Moreover, in our Pd0.92Fe0.08/Ag/Pd0.96Fe0.04 heterostructure, the Pd0.96Fe0.04 layer has a significant

Impact of device design on the electronic and optoelectronic properties of integrated Ru-terpyridine complexes

• Max Mennicken,
• Sophia Katharina Peter,
• Corinna Kaulen,
• Ulrich Simon and
• Silvia Karthäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 219–229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.16

• combination with the pinning of the Ru complex HOMO levels to the AuNPs impedes the formation of a higher conductive pathway between the electrodes, that is, a continuous path of electrically switched Ru2+/3+. An electrical switching of only a part of the relevant Ru complexes will have a minor effect on the

Influence of magnetic domain walls on all-optical magnetic toggle switching in a ferrimagnetic GdFe film

• Rahil Hosseinifar,
• Evangelos Golias,
• Ivar Kumberg,
• Quentin Guillet,
• Karl Frischmuth,
• Sangeeta Thakur,
• Mario Fix,
• Manfred Albrecht,
• Florian Kronast and
• Wolfgang Kuch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 74–81, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.5

• and successive thermal domain-wall motion in the locally heated region of the sample [20][21]. The places at which domain-wall motion is observed could exhibit a locally shallower domain wall pinning potential than other places along the domain wall and probably reflect the microstructure of the

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

• pinning center. This is in contrast to those NaCl islands that are pinned to step edges. They remain always stable at T = 4.8 K, independent of the scanning conditions. As is, these islands exhibit characteristics similar to the ones on conventional metals [41][43][44]. Thus, they are likely adequate for

In situ transport characterization of magnetic states in Nb/Co superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures

• Olena M. Kapran,
• Roman Morari,
• Taras Golod,
• Evgenii A. Borodianskyi,
• Vladimir Boian,
• Andrei Prepelita,
• Nikolay Klenov,
• Anatoli S. Sidorenko and
• Vladimir M. Krasnov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 913–923, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.68

• , the FF phenomenon is anticipated. FF depends on magnetic field, transport current, and vortex pinning, which in turn depends on the temperature. Figure 1g shows the bias-dependent variation of resistive transitions at H = 0 for a horizontal bridge at the S1 sample. For a single S layer at H = 0

• vortices may only be induced by the self-field of a transport current. However, for S/F heterostructures they may also be induced by stray fields from F-layers, especially in the presence of domain walls [54][55][56][57][58]. Domain walls also affect the FF phenomenon because they create a pinning

• important role. Indeed, Hall effect measurements, Figure 1i, unambiguously show that the resistance in our films has a flux-flow origin. Therefore, MR is due to the modulation of FF. The latter depends on the vortex density, pinning, the superconducting order parameter, and the driving current. Next, we

A review of defect engineering, ion implantation, and nanofabrication using the helium ion microscope

• Frances I. Allen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 633–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.52

• to 3 × 1015 ions/cm2, the domain walls could then be pinned in a highly reproducible manner. The same publication compared these results with those obtained using gallium ion irradiation and found that domain wall pinning was more pronounced in the helium ion case. This was attributed to the higher

• chemically ordered non-ferromagnetic Fe60Al40 precursor film. Ferroelectric properties Similar to the magnetic anisotropy experiments described above, helium ion irradiation using the HIM has also been used to locally modify ferroelectric properties. For example, pinning of ferroelectric domains in

Impact of GaAs(100) surface preparation on EQE of AZO/Al₂O₃/p-GaAs photovoltaic structures

• Piotr Caban,
• Rafał Pietruszka,
• Jarosław Kaszewski,
• Monika Ożga,
• Bartłomiej S. Witkowski,
• Krzysztof Kopalko,
• Piotr Kuźmiuk,
• Katarzyna Gwóźdź,
• Ewa Płaczek-Popko,
• Krystyna Lawniczak-Jablonska and
• Marek Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 578–592, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.48

• presence of an amorphous film of native oxides gives rise to midgap surface states in GaAs [8] which results in Fermi-level pinning [9]. Due to a high surface-related recombination velocity, a decrease in the photoluminescence (PL) of the semiconductor is also observed [7]. These phenomena have strong and

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 increased density of pinning sites, that is, variations of the local anisotropy. Since the influence of different ion doses and pattern shapes on the formation of magnetic domains is not known a priori for different magnetic material systems, a lot of different combinations of doses and shapes

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

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

• regime) and charged and uncharged molecules (Fermi level pinning regime) can be obtained. Furthermore, it was found that charge transfer and temperature strongly influence the orientation, conformation, and wetting behavior (physical coupling) of the 6P layers on the MgO(100) thin films. Keywords

• pinning regime” has been realized by the proportion of charged and neutral molecules coexisting in the first monolayer, as schematically illustrated in Figure 1. In this work function regime, ranging from all the molecules being charged to no molecules being charged, the molecular ML is characterized by a

• constant pinning work function (Φpin). The critical substrate work function (Φcrit) for the charge transfer is given by the condition ΦMgO = Φpin. On the macroscopic level, the simple relationships between the density of the integer charged molecules, the dielectric thickness (ddiel), and the change in the

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

• determined work functions and ionization energies. In contrast to Fermi level pinning, where binding energy shifts are not correlated to the work function change, we suggest that the vacuum level alignment is responsible for the energy level alignment since the work function change is sufficient to explain

Integrated photonics multi-waveguide devices for optical trapping and Raman spectroscopy: design, fabrication and performance demonstration

• Gyllion B. Loozen,
• Arnica Karuna,
• Mohammad M. R. Fanood,
• Erik Schreuder and
• Jacob Caro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 829–842, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.68

• ). The wide side of the funnel measures 250 μm across, a size that is suitable for the thin needle of a syringe. When a droplet is applied to the funnel, capillary forces induce rapid progress of the fluid/air interface towards the microbath. The pinning of the fluid/air interface at sharp edges [11

Imaging the surface potential at the steps on the rutile TiO₂(110) surface by Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Masato Miyazaki,
• Huan Fei Wen,
• Quanzhen Zhang,
• Yuuki Adachi,
• Jan Brndiar,
• Ivan Štich,
• Yan Jun Li and
• Yasuhiro Sugawara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1228–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.122

• addition, we also observed a drop in CPD on the surface without O2 exposure, indicating that the drop in CPD is not due to O2 adsorption. Third, we analyze the influence of the local pinning of the Fermi level due to defect states [55][56]. In the case of n-type semiconductors, negatively charged defect

Self-assembly and wetting properties of gold nanorod–CTAB molecules on HOPG

• Imtiaz Ahmad,
• Floor Derkink,
• Tim Boulogne,
• Pantelis Bampoulis,
• Harold J. W. Zandvliet,
• Hidayat Ullah Khan,
• Rahim Jan and
• E. Stefan Kooij

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 696–705, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.69

• evaporated leaving behind bright regions of deposits on the surface. SEM images of evaporation-induced deposits at various locations on the HOPG surface: (A) dense deposits of gold nanorods after the first pinning of the contact line; (B) monolayer close-packed arrays on terraces; and (C, D) nanorods

Disorder in H⁺-irradiated HOPG: effect of impinging energy and dose on Raman D-band splitting and surface topography

• Lisandro Venosta,
• Noelia Bajales,
• Sergio Suárez and
• Paula G. Bercoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2708–2717, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.253

• -board storage, molecule pinning and other carbon-based clean-energy applications. This is a topic of current interest in nanotechnology, in areas devoted to the control of properties by defect engineering in carbon-based materials. Experimental The graphite used for this work was HOPG of ZYB grade (SPI

Pinning of a ferroelectric Bloch wall at a paraelectric layer

• Vilgelmina Stepkova and
• Jiří Hlinka

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2356–2360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.220

• paraelectric layer with a thickness comparable to the thickness of the domain wall itself can act as an efficient pinning layer. At the same time, such a layer facilitates the possibility to switch domain wall helicity by an external electric field or even to completely change the characteristic structure of a

• equations [8][9][10]. It is intuitively clear that a paraelectric layer would act as pinning loci for the Ising ferroelectric wall because the interior of an Ising wall is not polarized at all. In that respect, the largest effect is expected for a layer with thickness matching that of the domain wall

• parent cubic lattice of both BaTiO3 and SrTiO3. It is found that a nanometer thin layer of SrTiO3 acts as a pinning loci not only for the Ising wall but also for the Bloch wall. Moreover, these results suggest that such a pinned Bloch wall can loose practically all of its inner polarization (see Figure 2

Influence of the thickness of an antiferromagnetic IrMn layer on the static and dynamic magnetization of weakly coupled CoFeB/IrMn/CoFeB trilayers

• Deepika Jhajhria,
• Dinesh K. Pandya and
• Sujeet Chaudhary

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2198–2208, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.206

• . Keywords: ferromagnetic resonance; interlayer exchange coupling; magnetic damping; magnetic thin films; spin pumping; Introduction Traditionally, antiferromagnets (AF) are known to play only a static role by pinning adjacent ferromagnetic (FM) layers via exchange bias in spin-valve devices [1]. Recently

Interaction-induced zero-energy pinning and quantum dot formation in Majorana nanowires

• Samuel D. Escribano,
• Alfredo Levy Yeyati and
• Elsa Prada

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2171–2180, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.203

• pairs, and showed that, in such case, a residual effect of interactions may arise from the image charges induced in the electrostatic environment of the nanowire. Using a simple model for the induced potential we concluded that, in typical experimental setups, interactions would lead to pinning of the

• pinning effect is still present under certain conditions that we discuss in detail below. Moreover, we explain the incompressible behavior of the electron liquid within these pinned regions in terms of the Majorana wave functions and their charge. Another important effect of the electrostatic environment

• [35][36], a prediction that has been experimentally demonstrated recently [25]. Here, we show that if the interaction between dots and Majorana levels occurs in a pinning region, Majorana levels are forced to depart from zero energy, revealing the existence of a finite wave function overlap between

A scanning probe microscopy study of nanostructured TiO₂/poly(3-hexylthiophene) hybrid heterojunctions for photovoltaic applications

• Laurie Letertre,
• Roland Roche,
• Olivier Douhéret,
• Hailu G. Kassa,
• Denis Mariolle,
• Nicolas Chevalier,
• Łukasz Borowik,
• Philippe Dumas,
• Benjamin Grévin,
• Roberto Lazzaroni and
• Philippe Leclère

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2087–2096, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.197

• itself. The first effect was reported previously [25], evidencing a pinning of the LUMO of P3HT-COOH at the conduction band of the TiO2 with a net transfer of half an electron per polymer chain from the LUMO of P3HT into the CB of TiO2. This results in the formation of a dipole at the P3HT-COOH/TiO2

Recent highlights in nanoscale and mesoscale friction

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

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

• theoretical understanding for the pinning/depinning transition, a systematic experimental investigation of how the relevant physical parameters (such as lattice mismatch, substrate-interaction strength, adsorbate rigidity, driving force, and temperature) influence the frictional response, e.g., from a

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

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

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

• presence of the ordered non-magnetic holes induces a demagnetization field distribution that changes the magnetization switching mechanisms [6], acting as pinning centers for domain walls [7], enhancing coercivity compared to that of the continuous film [8][9][10][11][12], and affecting the magnetic

• ,c for those with square order and in Figure 4d,e for those with hexagonal order. This enhancement can be attributed to the additional pinning of the magnetic domain walls produced by the holes [7][12][30]. At first sight it is observed that both coercivity and remanence of the arrays with larger

• they act as pinning centers for the domain wall motion during magnetization reversal. If a is the lattice constant (nearest neighbor center-to-center distance) and d is the hole diameter, the defect volume density (DVD), which is the ratio of the surface covered by holes to the total surface, is given