Response under low-energy electron irradiation of a thin film of a potential copper precursor for focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID)

• Leo Sala,
• Iwona B. Szymańska,
• Céline Dablemont,
• Anne Lafosse and
• Lionel Amiaud

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 57–65, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.8

• , probing a poorly conductive sample in HREELS is always challenging. However, it was possible to probe a part of the silicon surface in a corner without deposited material. The spectrum showed a small signature of THF, which was the solvent used in the dip-coating process (not shown). Therefore, we changed

Strategy to discover full-length amyloid-beta peptide ligands using high-efficiency microarray technology

• Clelia Galati,
• Natalia Spinella,
• Lucio Renna,
• Danilo Milardi,
• Francesco Attanasio,
• Michele Francesco Maria Sciacca and
• Corrado Bongiorno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2446–2453, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.243

• can be reactive against several environmental species, e.g., water; the silanization process may instead generate a certain number of reactive epoxide groups, randomly oriented at the silicon surface, which may react with the basic amino groups of the full-length amyloid peptide and therefore

• immobilize the peptide at the silicon surface. The same behavior can be assumed for shorter peptides. Test of amyloid-beta 1–40 binding by peptide ligands on HES The synthesized pentapeptide KLVFF and a commercial therapeutic heptapeptide, Semax, have been assayed to investigate their ability to bind full

Fabrication of gold-coated PDMS surfaces with arrayed triangular micro/nanopyramids for use as SERS substrates

• Jingran Zhang,
• Yongda Yan,
• Peng Miao and
• Jianxiong Cai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2271–2282, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.227

• R6G peak is approximately 110 counts on the Q-SERS substrate at different positions, as shown in Figure 11b. Because the Q-SERS substrate is characterized by the deposition of Au nanoparticles on a flat silicon surface, the enhancement of Au nanoparticles was detected only on the commercial Q-SERS

Imidazolium-based ionic liquids used as additives in the nanolubrication of silicon surfaces

• Patrícia M. Amorim,
• Ana M. Ferraria,
• Rogério Colaço,
• Luís C. Branco and
• Benilde Saramago

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1961–1971, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.197

• results were obtained with [EMIM][EtSO4], which were attributed to the presence of a stable tribofilm resulting from specific interaction between the [EtSO4] anion and the silicon surface [26][29]. The PEG + IL mixtures were characterized with respect to their viscosity and substrate wettability. The

• both cases, addition of the ILs to PEG increased the wettability confirming the preferential interaction of the IL ions with the silicon surface. The contact angles of the humid liquids are lower than those of the dry liquids, which should result from the preferential adsorption of water molecules on

• %, 2 wt % and 5 wt %, which showed similar results for 2 wt % and 5 wt %. The characterization of the PEG + IL mixtures with respect to the viscosity, η, at 25 °C, water content and contact angle on the silicon surface is described in Table 2. The viscosity of the mixtures is considerably higher than

Growth and characterization of textured well-faceted ZnO on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates for solar cell applications

• Chin-Yi Tsai,
• Jyong-Di Lai,
• Shih-Wei Feng,
• Chien-Jung Huang,
• Chien-Hsun Chen,
• Fann-Wei Yang,
• Hsiang-Chen Wang and
• Li-Wei Tu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1939–1945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.194

• the ZnO(002), which closely match the textured silicon surface as well. As a result, the planar Si(100) substrate will favor ZnO(110) crystallization, while the planar Si(111) substrate will favor Zn(002). The surface morphology of the ZnO film on planar Si(100) substrate will have more ridge-like

3D Nanoprinting via laser-assisted electron beam induced deposition: growth kinetics, enhanced purity, and electrical resistivity

• Brett B. Lewis,
• Robert Winkler,
• Xiahan Sang,
• Pushpa R. Pudasaini,
• Michael G. Stanford,
• Harald Plank,
• Raymond R. Unocic,
• Jason D. Fowlkes and
• Philip D. Rack

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 801–812, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.83

• surface. The bottom of the gas nozzle was located 100 µm above the silicon surface. In the substrate plane, the nozzle was located 250 µm from the beam impact point; this distance was measured from the top of the nozzle provided in a secondary electron image acquired at normal incidence with respect to

• deposition. The gas nozzle was located 150 µm above the silicon surface and 350 µm laterally and the chamber pressure during co-flow was ≈1.8 × 10−5 mbar. The temperature of the Ar–O2 gas was room temperature (23 °C) and the OmniGIS I was mounted on a separate high angle (52°) port on the SEM chamber located

Silicon microgrooves for contact guidance of human aortic endothelial cells

• Sara Fernández-Castillejo,
• Pilar Formentín,
• Úrsula Catalán,
• Josep Pallarès,
• Lluís F. Marsal and
• Rosa Solà

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 675–681, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.72

• cell adhesion, morphology and proliferation were assessed, by comparing them to flat silicon substrates, used as control condition. Using human aortic endothelial cells, microscopy images demonstrate that the cellular response is different depending on the silicon surface, when it comes to cell

• aforementioned decrease in cell spreading. Taking all the previously mentioned data, the present work provides evidence of the influence of the silicon surface topography on the cell behaviour. The use of such substrates may be a useful tool for the development of three-dimensional medical devices with

• multi-well plate in the absence of silicon surface) was used as calibrator in all the experiments. Blank control values were set at 100% and the other conditions were calculated in relation to this reference value. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) HAECs were cultured on the functionalized silicon

Role of oxygen in wetting of copper nanoparticles on silicon surfaces at elevated temperature

• Tapas Ghosh and
• Biswarup Satpati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 425–433, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.45

• nitrogen environment. The lattice transformation from cubic Cu to monoclinic CuO, and hence the change in surface energy of the particles, assists the wetting process. The occurrence of wetting during the oxidation step implies a strong interaction between the oxidized film and the silicon surface

• easily formed by thermal annealing on indium tin oxide (ITO) or glass [3]; but copper oxidation on a silicon surface may lead to copper silicidation [28]. Papadimitropoulos et al. have observed the formation of copper silicide at low annealing temperatures, and when the temperature is high, pure copper

• Si surface are presented in Figure 1a and Figure 1b, respectively). We observed that for copper nanoparticles on silicon substrates annealed in an oxygen environment, the particles are wetted on the silicon surface. Figure 1g and Figure 1h present the silicon and the copper elemental mapping

Microfluidic setup for on-line SERS monitoring using laser induced nanoparticle spots as SERS active substrate

• Oana-M. Buja,
• Ovidiu D. Gordan,
• Nicolae Leopold,
• Andreas Morschhauser,
• Jörg Nestler and
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 237–243, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.26

• , no significant changes can be noticed, the size of the spot being determined by the focus area of the used objective [25]. A SEM image of the silver spot synthesized on a silicon surface is shown in the inset of Figure 1b. The spot shows a rough surface, at nanometer scale, which facilitates the SERS

• −1. The laser power measured under a 50× long working distance objective with numerical aperture of 0.5 was 0.30 mW for the 514.7 nm laser source and 3 mW for the 632.8 nm laser source. For characterizing the SERS active substrate, a silver spot was prepared on a silicon surface by focusing the laser

Influence of hydrofluoric acid treatment on electroless deposition of Au clusters

• Rachela G. Milazzo,
• Antonio M. Mio,
• Giuseppe D’Arrigo,
• Emanuele Smecca,
• Alessandra Alberti,
• Gabriele Fisichella,
• Filippo Giannazzo,
• Corrado Spinella and
• Emanuele Rimini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 183–189, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.19

• , in the first case the layer-by-layer growth prevails while a 3D arrangement is promoted by the DHF pretreatment of 240 s. It is well known that HF strongly modifies the silicon surface roughness [26][27][28][29] and wetting properties [30]. The surface-free energy of gold is 1410 × 10−3 J/m−2, while

• that of Si and SiO2 are 1240 × 10−3 J/m2 and 400 × 10−3 J/m2, respectively [31]. The native SiO2 is completely etched after 10 s (etch rate 500 Å/min) so nucleation occurs on the hydrogenated silicon surface [32]. The roughness of the Si surface after a pretreatment of 4 min in DHF was measured by AFM

The effect of dry shear aligning of nanotube thin films on the photovoltaic performance of carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells

• Benedikt W. Stolz,
• Daniel D. Tune and
• Benjamin S. Flavel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1486–1491, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.141

• South Australia, Adelaide 5042, Australia 10.3762/bjnano.7.141 Abstract Recent results in the field of carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells have suggested that the best performance is obtained when the nanotube film provides good coverage of the silicon surface and when the nanotubes in the film are

• important factor in many devices is the degree of coverage of the films on the silicon surface, itself dependent on the films’ porosity. Jung et al. [17], Li et al. [28] and Tune et al. [42] have shown that alignment of the nanotubes by solution shearing (as known as slide casting, liquid film shearing

• ) nanotube films produced by common vacuum filtration from aqueous suspension or, b) identical films (from the same filtration membrane) that have been subjected to DSA before deposition onto the silicon surface. Results and Discussion SEM images (Figure 1) reveals clear differences between the nanotube

Effect of tetramethylammonium hydroxide/isopropyl alcohol wet etching on geometry and surface roughness of silicon nanowires fabricated by AFM lithography

• Siti Noorhaniah Yusoh and
• Khatijah Aisha Yaacob

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1461–1470, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.138

• in wet etching was obtained by adding isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to a KOH- or TMAH-based solution to enhance the smoothness of the silicon surface [10][12][16][18][19]. Based on these studies, it was claimed that IPA is an effective admixture for the improvement of surface smoothness. Recently, there

• units and proceeds to small units [22][23]. This approach is a well-known method for the fabrication of semiconductor devices in micro and nanoscale structures [24][25]. A biased AFM tip is operated under ambient conditions to oxidize the silicon surface locally and form an oxide mask [26]. Several

• disruption of the hydrogen bond network (between IPA molecules and hydrogen-terminated silicon surface) by other excess IPA molecules [28]. This approach would eliminate the monolayer and leads to an increase in the etching rate (Figure 11). Additionally, the roughness (Ra) values of silicon nanowires were

Characterization of spherical domains at the polystyrene thin film–water interface

• Khurshid Ahmad,
• Xuezeng Zhao,
• Yunlu Pan and
• Danish Hussain

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 581–590, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.51

• reported different phenomena on the PS-coated surface such as dewetting from the silicon surface and formation of nanoindents and blisters [11][25][26][27][28]. It has been shown that the PS film can be dewetted from the silicon surface upon the contact with water [11]. Wang et al. [25] found that the

• , these objects nucleate and leave a footprint as the film dries. Contrary to the optical microscopy study of Berkelaar et al. [26], the proposed blisters were also found upon exposure to ethanol (Figure 11b). Therefore, the hydrophilic silicon surface can further explain the formation of the blisters at

• formed at the defects occurring at the interface of silicon and the PS film. As soon as the osmotic pressure equals the fracture pressure, the PS film detaches from the silicon surface and the blisters begin to form. Their explanation that the water penetrates into the PS–silicon dioxide through

Characterisation of thin films of graphene–surfactant composites produced through a novel semi-automated method

• Nik J. Walch,
• Alexei Nabok,
• Frank Davis and
• Séamus P. J. Higson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 209–219, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.19

• . It is clear from these images that the surface coverage is not optimal. Additionally the graphene flakes were seen to change position and shape during scanning, suggesting poor adhesion to the silicon surface. This could potentially be overcome in future work by using surface-modified silicon wafers

• image 5 μm; (b) pseudo-3D image of individual graphene flake. (c) Sectional analysis of the image in (a). (a) SEM image of PAH/graphene(−)SDS layer on a silicon surface; (b) EDX spectra recorded on a graphene flake, and (c) an empty space. (a) AFM image (tapping mode) of a PEI/graphene(−)SDS film, and

• (b) a corresponding sectional analysis. (a) Spectra of ellipsometric parameters Ψ and Δ recorded on a bare silicon surface (*) and on PAH/graphene(−)SDS films deposited on it (the numbers 1, 2, 3 correspond to the number of PAH/graphene bilayers); (b) The example of data fitting for one bilayer of

The role of low-energy electrons in focused electron beam induced deposition: four case studies of representative precursors

• Rachel M. Thorman,
• Ragesh Kumar T. P.,
• D. Howard Fairbrother and
• Oddur Ingólfsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1904–1926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.194

• the SE yield, is close to that of gold. Further, Figure 11b compares the PE energy dependence of the MeCpPtMe3 deposition yield on a silicon surface (Z = 14) and the calculated PE energy dependence of the SE yield from aluminum (Z = 13). Here, one has to keep in mind the influence of the growing

Polymer blend lithography for metal films: large-area patterning with over 1 billion holes/inch²

• Cheng Huang,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1205–1211, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.123

• must be rinsed in acetic acid instead of cyclohexane. In this case, consisting PS droplets is left on the substrate. A smooth and clean silicon surface can be seen in the SEM image taken at a tilting angle of 45°. The “Go stone”-like PS droplets are ideal for the following lift-off process (see Figure

Boosting the local anodic oxidation of silicon through carbon nanofiber atomic force microscopy probes

• Gemma Rius,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Soichiro Matsui,
• Masaki Tanemura and
• Francesc Perez-Murano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 215–222, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.20

• logically concerned silicon, as it is the ubiquitous material of modern electronics [6][7]. The application of an electric field between a conductive tip and a silicon substrate under ambient conditions can generate the local anodic oxidation (LAO) of the silicon surface very precisely; intrinsic silicon

Formation of stable Si–O–C submonolayers on hydrogen-terminated silicon(111) under low-temperature conditions

• Yit Lung Khung,
• Siti Hawa Ngalim,
• Andrea Scaccabarozzi and
• Dario Narducci

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 19–26, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.3

• as the low process costs. The general consensus on the mechanism of hydrosilylation of the bulk silicon surface proposed by Linford et al. suggests a self-propagating chain mechanism that ultimately leads to densely packed layers. It is considered to be a self-repeating three-step reaction [11] after

• the initial radicalization of the silicon surface: The conditions by which Linford et al. performed the reaction were very stringent and regardless of variations in the experimental approach in later studies by other authors, the basis of a silyl radical reacting with unsaturated C–C bonds remained

• the hydrogenated silicon surface. One question to address would be the actual reaction preference of the Si–H surface when exposed to both an alkyne and an alcohol at lower temperatures, i.e., whether the surface would still undergo hydrogen abstraction in the presence of a competing reactant. One of

In situ metalation of free base phthalocyanine covalently bonded to silicon surfaces

• Fabio Lupo,
• Cristina Tudisco,
• Federico Bertani,
• Enrico Dalcanale and
• Guglielmo G. Condorelli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2222–2229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.231

• results revealed that the different surface–phthalocyanine interactions observed for flat and porous substrates affect the efficiency of the in situ metalation process. Keywords: metalation; phthalocyanine; silicon surface; surface functionalization; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS); Introduction

• atoms [19][20]. However, no report of the direct metalation of covalently bonded Pc on inorganic surfaces has been reported, yet. In this work we study the silicon grafting of the tetra-4-(ω-undecenyloxy)phthalocyanine (thereafter 1-Pc) (Figure 1) and its interaction with a silicon surface. 1-Pc was

• (Figure 1). 1-Pc covalently bonded to silicon surface was in situ metalated with Co by using a solution of cobalt chloride. The direct formation of Co-Pc on flat and porous Si (Si-Co-Pc and PSi-Co-Pc, respectively) was monitored by XPS and FTIR. In particular, for phthalocyanines anchored on porous Si

Towards bottom-up nanopatterning of Prussian blue analogues

• Virgile Trannoy,
• Marco Faustini,
• David Grosso,
• Sandra Mazerat,
• François Brisset,
• Alexandre Dazzi and
• Anne Bleuzen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1933–1943, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.204

• nanoperforated layer. This suggests a dewetting of the gold layer from the silicon surface to form gold droplets between the silicon wafer and the nanoperforated oxide layer corresponding to the light areas. The bottom of the nanoperforations in the dark areas would therefore be made of silicon rather than of

A study on the consequence of swift heavy ion irradiation of Zn–silica nanocomposite thin films: electronic sputtering

• Compesh Pannu,
• Udai B. Singh,
• Dinesh. C. Agarwal,
• Saif A. Khan,
• Sunil Ojha,
• Ramesh Chandra,
• Hiro Amekura,
• Debdulal Kabiraj and
• Devesh. K. Avasthi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1691–1698, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.179

• shown in Figure 1. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry was performed to determine the Zn content in the silica of pristine and irradiated samples by using the 1.7 MV tandem accelerator facility at IUAC, New Delhi with 2 MeV He+ ions. A silicon surface barrier detector was used at a backscattering

Review of nanostructured devices for thermoelectric applications

• Giovanni Pennelli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1268–1284, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.141

• of a uniform Au film on a silicon surface, with a successive rapid thermal annealing (RTA), can be used for the fabrication of Au nanoparticles on large surfaces. Even if the nanoparticles have a random position and diameter, the average diameter and diameter dispersion can be partially controlled by

Topology assisted self-organization of colloidal nanoparticles: application to 2D large-scale nanomastering

• Hind Kadiri,
• Serguei Kostcheev,
• Daniel Turover,
• Rafael Salas-Montiel,
• Komla Nomenyo,
• Anisha Gokarna and
• Gilles Lerondel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1203–1209, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.132

• other methods (e.g., the auto-organization technique) have been demonstrated for the 2D and 3D auto-organization of micro-particles on solid substrates [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The formation of self-assembled monolayers of polystyrene beads on a silicon surface has been achieved by this technique [11][12

• scale ordered structures. This method combines top-down and bottom-up approaches [18]. In the top-down approach a guide post template is fabricated by an electron beam lithography (EBL) technique on a silicon surface. Thereafter, on these guide posts, self-organization of polystyrene beads is conducted

The study of surface wetting, nanobubbles and boundary slip with an applied voltage: A review

• Yunlu Pan,
• Bharat Bhushan and
• Xuezeng Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1042–1065, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.117

• force on the probe was recorded as a function of separation distance. The slip length can be obtained by analyzing the recorded force. The slip length on a clean flat hydrophilic surface, such as silicon surface, was always firstly measured as a reference. DI water and saline solution were used in this

• experiment. The saline solution was described in the experimental part of section 3. On a flat hydrophilic surface, such as silicon surface, the deflection of the colloidal probe, Def, in the experiment can be given as [86]: where Fhydro is the hydrodynamic force, FES is the electrostatic force, μ is the

• function of the separation distance on a hydrophilic silicon surface using Equation 8, the value of k/(6·π·μ·R2) was obtained as 16.2 nm·s. With the measured value of R = 29.75 μm and the known value of μ = 9.8 × 10−4 kg/m·s for water at room temperature [87], the stiffness k can be calculated as 0.267 N/m

Uncertainties in forces extracted from non-contact atomic force microscopy measurements by fitting of long-range background forces

• Adam Sweetman and
• Andrew Stannard

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 386–393, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.45

• , and, based on previous measurements of similar sensors [5][15], assume an effective stiffness of k ≈ 2000 N/m. The sensors were first prepared on a clean silicon surface by standard STM techniques (pulsing and indentation) until good STM and NC-AFM resolution was achieved. Typically we used