Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• , 050094 Bucharest, Romania 10.3762/bjnano.10.182 Abstract Multilayer structures comprising of SiO2/SiGe/SiO2 and containing SiGe nanoparticles were obtained by depositing SiO2 layers using reactive direct current magnetron sputtering (dcMS), whereas, Si and Ge were co-sputtered using dcMS and high-power

• impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). The as-grown structures subsequently underwent rapid thermal annealing (550–900 °C for 1 min) in N2 ambient atmosphere. The structures were investigated using X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy together with spectral photocurrent

• consequential interface characteristics and its effect on the photocurrent spectra. Keywords: grazing incidence XRD (GIXRD); high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS); HRTEM; magnetron sputtering; photocurrent spectra; SiGe nanocrystals in SiO2/SiGe/SiO2 multilayers; STEM-HAADF; TEM; Introduction

Subsurface imaging of flexible circuits via contact resonance atomic force microscopy

• Wenting Wang,
• Chengfu Ma,
• Yuhang Chen,
• Lei Zheng,
• Huarong Liu and
• Jiaru Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1636–1647, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.159

• 11 wt % PMMA in anisole solvent at 1500 rpm for 5 min, resulting in a thickness of approximately 3.5 µm. Then, a 300 nm thick Au film was sputtered on the PMMA substrate by using magnetron sputtering. The Au film was subsequently patterned by focused ion beam (FIB) milling (FEI, Helios NanoLab 650

Rapid thermal annealing for high-quality ITO thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

• Petronela Prepelita,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Doina Craciun,
• Florin Garoi,
• Catalin Negrila,
• Beatrice Gabriela Sbarcea and
• Valentin Craciun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1511–1522, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.149

• temperature by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (rfMS). After deposition, the films were subjected to a RTA process at 575 °C (heating rate 20 °C/s), maintained at this temperature for 10 minutes, then cooled down to room temperature at a rate of 20 °C/s. The film structure was modified by changing the

• treatment in an open atmosphere. Such films could be used to manufacture transparent contact electrodes for solar cells. Keywords: conductive transparent electrodes; indium tin oxide (ITO) films; optical properties; radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (rfMS); rapid thermal annealing (RTA); Introduction

• sputtering [20][21][22], and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [23]. Various changes in the optical, electrical and structural qualities are known to occur depending on the type of deposition and thermal treatment process [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] applied to the ITO films. For instance, an improvement in the

Superconducting switching due to a triplet component in the Pb/Cu/Ni/Cu/Co₂Cr_1−xFe_xAl_y spin-valve structure

• Andrey Andreevich Kamashev,
• Nadir Nurgayazovich Garif’yanov,
• Aidar Azatovich Validov,
• Joachim Schumann,
• Vladislav Kataev,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Yakov Victorovich Fominov and
• Ilgiz Abdulsamatovich Garifullin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1458–1463, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.144

• . The Ni, Cu and Pb layers were prepared using e-beam techniques. For the fabrication of the HA and the Si3N4 layers dc sputtering was used. We used deposition rates of 0.4 Å/s for HA and Si3N4, 0.5 Å/s for Cu and Ni, and 10 Å/s for Pb. At first, when evaporating HA, the substrate temperature was kept

Growth of lithium hydride thin films from solutions: Towards solution atomic layer deposition of lithiated films

• Ivan Kundrata,
• Karol Fröhlich,
• Lubomír Vančo,
• Matej Mičušík and
• Julien Bachmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.142

• LIPON battery in which the solid electrolyte consists of nitrogen-doped lithium phosphate, present several shortcomings. One of them is the use of sputtering [1] for the deposition of the thin layers. Inherently, sputtering does not yield coatings with high conformity on non-planar substrates. Low

• , LiH is not only suitable as an electrode material, where in fact it boasts the highest lithium concentration after elemental Li, it is also extremely useful as a hydrogen-torage layer. Since sputtering of LiH is possible [23][24], but not conformal, the sALD growth of LiH enables research regarding

• Li2O on the surface, acquired at two different areas of the sample (red and blue), shown together with the internal reference for Li2O (black). XPS spectra before Ar sputtering of a) Li 1s region, b) C 1s and c) O 1s region. In situ QCM results, showing approximately 18 sALD cycles. The maxima and

Direct observation of oxygen-vacancy formation and structural changes in Bi₂WO₆ nanoflakes induced by electron irradiation

• Hong-long Shi,
• Bin Zou,
• Zi-an Li,
• Min-ting Luo and
• Wen-zhong Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1434–1442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.141

• transformed into WO3. These features indicate bond breaking within Bi–O layers and the reconstruction of WO6 octahedra predominantly occur at the surfaces of the irradiated nanoflake. In general, electron irradiation of materials results in three major effects: heating, sputtering and radiolysis. The maximum

• irradiation, in this case, is far too low to decompose Bi2WO6 nanoflakes. Besides, loops or defect clusters were not observed during the whole irradiation process suggesting that the knock-off or sputtering effects can be neglected. When a high-energy electron beam passes through the sample, an electric field

Kelvin probe force microscopy of the nanoscale electrical surface potential barrier of metal/semiconductor interfaces in ambient atmosphere

• Petr Knotek,
• Tomáš Plecháček,
• Jan Smolík,
• Petr Kutálek,
• Filip Dvořák,
• Milan Vlček,
• Jiří Navrátil and
• Čestmír Drašar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1401–1411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.138

• crystals of 10–20 mm in length, 3–6 mm in width and up to 3 mm in thickness [31]. The surface of freshly cleaved layered Bi2Se3 single crystals was used as a substrate. The samples for the AFM measurement, Au nanoparticles (NPs) and thin films of gold or molybdenum, were prepared via DC sputtering in a SEM

• Coating System (Bio-Rad) in Ar atmosphere (p ≈ 20 Pa, I = 18 mA, U = 1.4 kV) from pure metal sheets (Mo 4N, Au 4N). For preparing separated Au nanoparticles under the same sputtering conditions, however, a stainless steel mask (system of 100 × 500 μm2 holes, 200 holes/cm2) between the substrate and target

• beam source in order to remove surface contaminants. A monoatomic argon ion source was utilized with energy of 2 keV, ion current 10 µA, raster area 1 × 1 mm2 and sputtering time 30 s. Results and Discussion Separated metal nanoparticles on the substrate In TE materials the NIs applicable for an

Gas sensing properties of individual SnO₂ nanowires and SnO₂ sol–gel nanocomposites

• Alexey V. Shaposhnik,
• Dmitry A. Shaposhnik,
• Sergey Yu. Turishchev,
• Olga A. Chuvenkova,
• Stanislav V. Ryabtsev,
• Alexey A. Vasiliev,
• Xavier Vilanova,
• Francisco Hernandez-Ramirez and
• Joan R. Morante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1380–1390, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.136

• and high surface-to-volume ratio, obtained by sintering, are traditionally used as sensing materials. By means of preparation methods such as magnetron sputtering, laser ablation, and pulverization, layer-by-layer nanoparticle deposition can be achieved with adhesion to the substrate and to previously

• intensity of the 533.6 eV component (Figure 6) of the O 1s line [51]. Previously, this component was observed on polycrystalline nanolayers formed by magnetron sputtering of tin and ambient air oxidation afterwards [47]. Figure 7 compares XANES Sn M4,5 spectra of the samples with those obtained on the SnO2

Janus-micromotor-based on–off luminescence sensor for active TNT detection

• Ye Yuan,
• Changyong Gao,
• Daolin Wang,
• Chang Zhou,
• Baohua Zhu and
• Qiang He

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1324–1331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.131

• capsule motors were fabricated by layer-by-layer assembly of UCNP-functionalized polyelectrolyte microcapsules, followed by sputtering of a platinum layer onto one half of the capsule. By catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to oxygen bubbles, the Janus UCNP capsule motors are rapidly propelled

• dispersed on a glass slide to form a monolayer. After sputtering of a 20 nm thin film of Pt, the Janus UCNP-functionalized capsule motors were obtained by removing the silica cores with hydrofluoric acid. To prepare the Janus UCNP capsule motors, NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ UCNPs were firstly synthesized following a

• uniformly dispersed on the surface of the microcapsule. After Pt sputtering and removal of the silica core, the Janus UCNP capsule motors were obtained. As shown in Figure 1g, the as-prepared APTES-UCNPs were partially covered with a Pt cap, displaying a Janus structure. The scanning electron microscopy

Fabrication of phase masks from amorphous carbon thin films for electron-beam shaping

• Lukas Grünewald,
• Dagmar Gerthsen and
• Simon Hettler

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1290–1302, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.128

• sudden increase in sputter yield due to additional sputtering from the PM back side. At this point, fine control over the milling process is lost due to the increased sputter yield. Accordingly, the offset thickness can only be controllably reduced to a minimum thickness that lies in the range of the

• penetration depth of the Ga ions in the material of the thin film. The thickness amplitude is smaller than expected, because even though the FIB is only scanned azimuthally along the minima, sputtering also takes place near the maxima of the sinusoidal structure and decreases the total thickness of the thin

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

• cantilever deflection was measured using an optical beam deflection method [45]. The images were obtained using a commercial Ir-coated Si cantilever (NANOSENSORS) with a resonant frequency of 804 kHz and 808 kHz and a spring constant of 1500 N/m. Before the experiments, the tip was cleaned by Ar+ sputtering

• (1 keV, 6.7 × 10−7 mbar, 5 min) and annealing (600 K, less than 2.7 × 10−10 mbar, 20 min) to remove the native oxide layer and other contaminants. A clean rutile TiO2(110) crystal (provided by Furuuchi Chemical Corporation) was prepared by dozens of cycles of Ar+ sputtering (1 keV, 1.3 × 10−6 mbar

Pure and mixed ordered monolayers of tetracyano-2,6-naphthoquinodimethane and hexathiapentacene on the Ag(100) surface

• Robert Harbers,
• Timo Heepenstrick,
• Dmitrii F. Perepichka and
• Moritz Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1188–1199, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.118

• Metrology, Denmark). The correction was done such that the unit cell of the periodic structures fitted to the unit cell determined by LEED. All experiments were performed on the same Ag(100) single crystal, which was prepared by cycles of Ar+ ion sputtering at 800 eV for 30 min and annealing at 800–900 K

Quantitative analysis of annealing-induced instabilities of photo-leakage current and negative-bias-illumination-stress in a-InGaZnO thin-film transistors

• Dapeng Wang and
• Mamoru Furuta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1125–1130, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.112

• sputtering techniques, the sample suffers from the plasma bombardment in the chamber. In addition, the deposited films are inevitably irradiated by UV light in the process of patterning, inducing the increase in the concentration of oxygen-related defects, which further degrade the initial electrical

Direct growth of few-layer graphene on AlN-based resonators for high-sensitivity gravimetric biosensors

• Jimena Olivares,
• Teona Mirea,
• Lorena Gordillo-Dagallier,
• Bruno Marco,
• José Miguel Escolano,
• Marta Clement and
• Enrique Iborra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 975–984, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.98

• the films involved in the SMR structure were deposited by sputtering, except the Ir bottom electrode and the Ni catalyst that were e-beam evaporated. The deposition conditions of the AlN and SiO2 layers in the reflector were carefully adjusted to minimize residual stresses in each film. The final

Fabrication of silver nanoisland films by pulsed laser deposition for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

• Bogusław Budner,
• Mariusz Kuźma,
• Barbara Nasiłowska,
• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Malwina Liszewska and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 882–893, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.89

• physical methods include fabrication of nanostructured silver films by electron-beam evaporation [16], gas aggregation [17] and radio-frequency sputtering [18]. The advantages of certain physical methods over chemical methods include that there is no reagent contamination and that the monodispersity of

On the transformation of “zincone”-like into porous ZnO thin films from sub-saturated plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

• Alberto Perrotta,
• Julian Pilz,
• Stefan Pachmajer,
• Antonella Milella and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 746–759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.74

• deposited at room temperature [40]. The O/Zn ratio is also reported in Table 1. All values are below unity, due to the preferential sputtering occurring when atomic masses of the measured elements are very different, which is the case of Zn and O. In the literature [61], the O/Zn ratios are generally

• stretching of carbonate/bidentate/carboxyl groups (νOCO) (1300–1660 cm−1) are highlighted in the image. High-resolution XPS spectra of the pristine (a–c) and annealed (d,e) zincone-like layers acquired after 60 s Ar+ sputtering. Pristine: a) C 1s HR spectrum and b) O 1s HR spectrum as a function of the

An iridescent film of porous anodic aluminum oxide with alternatingly electrodeposited Cu and SiO₂ nanoparticles

• Menglei Chang,
• Huawen Hu,
• Haiyan Quan,
• Hongyang Wei,
• Zhangyi Xiong,
• Jiacong Lu,
• Pin Luo,
• Yaoheng Liang,
• Jianzhen Ou and
• Dongchu Chen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 735–745, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.73

• was deposited via sputtering, yielding a colorful filter material. Different structural colors could be obtained via changing the anodization time [17]. In this context, instead of using high-purity aluminum foils and titanium foils as the substrate for the anodization treatment, which have been

• from light purple to dark purple with the variation of the incident light angle from 0 to 30°. From the elemental mapping images of the S1 sample shown in Figure 4a, the sample includes the elements of Al, O, Cu and Au. The appearance of Au is due to the sputtering of the surface with Au (to enhance

Features and advantages of flexible silicon nanowires for SERS applications

• Hrvoje Gebavi,
• Vlatko Gašparić,
• Dubravko Risović,
• Nikola Baran,
• Paweł Henryk Albrycht and
• Mile Ivanda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 725–734, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.72

• ]. In short, Si wafers (<100> orientation, 5–10 Ω·cm resistivity, p-type) were cleaned following the standard RCA (Radio Corporation of America) cleaning processes [24], followed by Au sputtering in a Polaron E5000 sputter coater at ca. 5·10−4 mbar work pressure. Prior to VLS synthesis, annealing in

• obtained in the previous step was obtained by the same sputtering system after different time durations (3, 5, 7, 16, 20 and 30 min). Afterwards, the ca. 3 × 3 mm2 squared samples were immersed in an ethanol solution of 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (4-MPBA) for several hours. The morphology of the

• [35]). The influence of the capillary forces will be discussed in the following sections. Ag decoration and morphology of Si nanowires and immersion-induced changes Using 500 °C as the optimal VLS process temperature, we decorated SiNWs through Ag sputtering. The sputtering time varied from 3 to 30

Biomimetic synthesis of Ag-coated glasswing butterfly arrays as ultra-sensitive SERS substrates for efficient trace detection of pesticides

• Guochao Shi,
• Mingli Wang,
• Yanying Zhu,
• Yuhong Wang,
• Xiaoya Yan,
• Xin Sun,
• Haijun Xu and
• Wanli Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 578–588, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.59

• hybrids (Ag-G.b.) by magnetron sputtering technology. The 3D surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate is fabricated from an original chitin-based nanostructure, which serves as a bio-scaffold for Ag nanofilms to be coated on. The novel crisscrossing plate-like nanostructures of 3D Ag-G.b

• . nanohybrids with thick Ag nanofilms provide a substantial contribution to SERS enhancement. Measuring the SERS performance with crystal violet (CV), the Ag-G.b. nanohybrids with the sputtering time of 20 min (Ag-G.b.-20) shows the highest enhancement performance with an enhancement factor (EF) of up to 2.96

• 3D biomimetic SERS substrate with a high density of “hot spots” was formed on a template of cicada wings via a simple one-step and reagent-free direct-current ion sputtering techniques by Prof. Han’s group [26]. These 3D plasmonic nanostructures are adopted because these 3D substrates offer a great

Hydrophilicity and carbon chain length effects on the gas sensing properties of chemoresistive, self-assembled monolayer carbon nanotube sensors

• Juan Casanova-Cháfer,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Eduard Llobet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 565–577, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.58

• oxygen plasma treatment. However, the presence of such defects in CNTs is essential, since it has been shown that they play the role of nucleation centers and help to anchor the Au nanoparticles during the sputtering process [36]. In other words, the defects help to achieve a dense and homogenous

• % purity). Then, the suspension was placed in an ultrasonic bath during 30 min at room temperature. Thereafter, the suspension was deposited onto screen-printed alumina substrates by employing an airbrushing technique. Finally, the MWCNTs were decorated with gold nanoparticles by a sputtering method. An

• ATC Orion 8-HV sputtering machine (AJA International, Inc., USA) was used for this purpose. In this process, an RF inductively coupled plasma was used at a frequency of 13.56 MHz. The sputtering parameters were adjusted to 30 W under argon plasma during 10 s at a pressure of 0.1 Torr [50]. Au

Choosing a substrate for the ion irradiation of two-dimensional materials

• Egor A. Kolesov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 531–539, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.54

• defect formation mechanisms. The estimations include Monte Carlo simulations for He, Ar, Xe, C, N and Si ions, performed in the incident ion energy range from 100 eV to 250 MeV. Cu, SiO2, SiC and Al2O3 substrates were analyzed. The considered substrate-related defect formation mechanisms are sputtering

• -dimensional materials and as a practical guide on choosing the conditions necessary to obtain certain parameters of irradiated materials. Keywords: 2D materials; defects; hot electrons; ion irradiation; recoils; sputtering; substrate; Introduction Ion irradiation of two-dimensional (2D) materials is a

• Transport of Ions in Matter (TRIM) simulations using 160 MeV Xe ions for the irradiation of graphene on Cu, SiO2/Si and glass leads to negligible overall participation of substrate sputtering and a stronger (but small) role of the substrate recoils. Besides, it was noted that hot electrons generated in the

Nanocomposite–parylene C thin films with high dielectric constant and low losses for future organic electronic devices

• Marwa Mokni,
• Gianluigi Maggioni,
• Abdelkader Kahouli,
• Sara M. Carturan,
• Walter Raniero and
• Alain Sylvestre

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 428–441, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.42

• deposition and RF-magnetron sputtering for silver deposition. This method yields good dispersion of Ag-containing nanoparticles inside the parylene C polymer matrix. Film composition and structure were studied by using several techniques. It was found that the plasma generated by the RF-magnetron reactor

• increase the dielectric constant of NCPC without degrading its dielectric losses. In this context, this work presents a new strategy to synthesize nanocomposite parylene C materials by a combination of two processes, CVD and RF-magnetron sputtering. The NCPC properties are analyzed in detail by different

• pure parylene C and NCPCs. Apart from sample O, which was produced by keeping the sputtering source off, all the samples were deposited with the plasma switched on but with different numbers of rotations with the shutter open (i.e., changing the amount of Ag atoms incorporated inside the film

Intuitive human interface to a scanning tunnelling microscope: observation of parity oscillations for a single atomic chain

• Sumit Tewari,
• Jacob Bakermans,
• Christian Wagner,
• Federica Galli and
• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 337–348, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.33

• the simulation. The scaling factor converts approximately 10 cm of hand movement to 2 Å displacement of the STM tip. The usual imaging in STM is done using a commercial RHK SPM100 ver.8E controller. A mono-crystalline gold sample cut along the (111) surface is prepared by repeated argon sputtering and

Geometrical optimisation of core–shell nanowire arrays for enhanced absorption in thin crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Robin Vismara,
• Olindo Isabella,
• Andrea Ingenito,
• Fai Tong Si and
• Miro Zeman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 322–331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.31

• , a 100 nm thick transparent tin-doped indium oxide (In2O3:Sn, ITO) was deposited at low power and low temperature, using radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. The cell area was defined as 5 mm × 5 mm, using a mask during ITO deposition. The reported equivalent thickness values of thin films on

Nitrous oxide as an effective AFM tip functionalization: a comparative study

• Taras Chutora,
• Bruno de la Torre,
• Pingo Mutombo,
• Jack Hellerstedt,
• Jaromír Kopeček,
• Pavel Jelínek and
• Martin Švec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 315–321, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.30

• ) was cleaned by repeated cycles of sputtering (1 keV) and subsequent annealing to 600 °C. FePc molecules (Sigma Aldrich, evaporation temperature ca. 250 °C) were directly evaporated onto a clean Au(111) surface at room temperature. N2O was adsorbed onto the Au(111) surface at temperatures below 12 K