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

• (“KPFM cross-sectional investigation under illumination”), we have pointed out the enhancement of contrast in the VCPD image under white-light illumination of the sample cross section. In particular, since the bulk lattice periodicity is interrupted at the surface of a cleaved semiconductor, surface

• reconstruction and formation of dangling bonds of surface atoms may occur, creating surface states within the energy bandgap. For instance, these surface states can pin the Fermi level and cause downward (upward) band bending from the bulk to the surface in a p-type (n-type) semiconductor in the case of the

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

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

• information about the island structure, we consider the image displayed in Figure 3d and the magnification in Figure 3e. Within the image in Figure 3d, the dashed white line indicates the island domain boundary, which is perpendicular to the surface reconstruction rows. The STM image of the molecular island

• is composed of lobes that are not equally bright. The separation of the neighboring lobes along the dashed white line located at the domain boundary (i.e., across surface reconstruction rows) reaches approximately 0.7 nm, as described above. Close inspection of the island edge at the position marked

• Ge(001):H surface pattern, the molecules in the “blue” structure form columns at an angle of approximately 30° with respect to the Ge(001):H surface reconstruction rows and exhibit an additional ad-structure. This additional modification comes from the fact that only every second molecule within the

Direct observation of the Si(110)-(16×2) surface reconstruction by atomic force microscopy

• Tatsuya Yamamoto,
• Ryo Izumi,
• Kazushi Miki,
• Takahiro Yamasaki,
• Yasuhiro Sugawara and
• Yan Jun Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1750–1756, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.157

•  5 has never been observed, further experimental and theoretical research will be needed. Conclusion The Si(110)-(16×2) surface reconstruction was investigated by AFM at 78 K. We observed bright spots and pairs of pentagons on the upper and lower terraces, and directly confirmed that the pair of

• . Among the atoms at the step edge, the U-S4, U-S5 and L-S4 atoms were not reported in previous STM studies. This work provides new evidence and a call for the further investigation of the surface reconstruction with atomic resolution on the Si(110) surface by AFM and opens up novel routes for studying

Atomic defect classification of the H–Si(100) surface through multi-mode scanning probe microscopy

• Jeremiah Croshaw,
• Thomas Dienel,
• Taleana Huff and
• Robert Wolkow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1346–1360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.119

• -terminated dimers and dihydrides. Instead of two parallel dimer rows as in the normal surface reconstruction, there exists only a central dimer row of variable length (here we show one that is 3 dimers wide), with the remaining unpaired silicon atoms fully saturated as dihydrides (model in Figure 2c-7,8

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

• visible as stripes with increased apparent height in Figure 4a. By measuring the width of hcp and fcc stacking domains on clean and C42H28-covered Au(111) we find that C42H28 adsorption leaves the surface reconstruction invariant. In addition, step edges of the Au(111) surface are decorated with molecules

• C42H28 adsorption on Au(111) with molecular rows being aligned with the separation of the fcc (bright dots) and hcp (dark dots) stacking domains of the surface reconstruction. (a) Spectrum of dI/dV (dots) recorded above a C42H28 phenyl group on Au(111) with the spectroscopic signature of the HOMO

Quantitative determination of the interaction potential between two surfaces using frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy

• Nicholas Chan,
• Carrie Lin,
• Tevis Jacobs,
• Robert W. Carpick and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 729–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.60

• hydrogen- and oxygen-termination, as well as chemical aging of the diamond surface can lead to significant variations in surface energy [63]. Furthermore, a loss of hydrogen termination of the diamond surface could result in CHx defects [64][65] as well C–C dimer surface reconstruction [66]. Therefore, a

Molecular attachment to a microscope tip: inelastic tunneling, Kondo screening, and thermopower

• Rouzhaji Tuerhong,
• Mauro Boero and
• Jean-Pierre Bucher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1243–1250, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.124

• dropping the molecule at an elbow site of the Au(111) reconstruction, indicated by the arrow in Figure 1b, the STM image improves significantly and the surface reconstruction of Au(111) becomes clearly visible. It should be emphasized that only one molecule is deposited from the STM tip on the surface as

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

• annealing cycles to obtain an atomically flat Au(111) facet showing herringbone surface reconstruction. We further prepare the surface at low temperature by creating a localized stress pattern [11][12][13][14] on the surface using gentle indentation of the STM tip at a spot on the surface remote from the

Combined pulsed laser deposition and non-contact atomic force microscopy system for studies of insulator metal oxide thin films

• Daiki Katsube,
• Hayato Yamashita,
• Satoshi Abo and
• Masayuki Abe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 686–692, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.63

• ][41][42]. Different conditions of annealing and sputtering result in different types of surface reconstruction even under the same preparation conditions [26]. As an example of an insulator metal oxide, an Al2O3(0001) surface prepared using iterations of annealing and sputtering was imaged with atomic

Periodic structures on liquid-phase smectic A, nematic and isotropic free surfaces

• Anna N. Bagdinova,
• Evgeny I. Demikhov,
• Nataliya G. Borisenko,
• Sergei M. Tolokonnikov,
• Gennadii V. Mishakov and
• Andrei V. Sharkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 342–352, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.34

• time in the SmA phase, the stripes become smoother and the periodicity larger. Because of the layered structure of the SmA phase, the energy barrier exits for the surface reconstruction, therefore the stripes are more pronounced in the SmA phase. The observation of stripes in the nematic phase and

Dopant-stimulated growth of GaN nanotube-like nanostructures on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy

• Alexey D. Bolshakov,
• Alexey M. Mozharov,
• Georgiy A. Sapunov,
• Igor V. Shtrom,
• Nickolay V. Sibirev,
• Vladimir V. Fedorov,
• Evgeniy V. Ubyivovk,
• Maria Tchernycheva,
• George E. Cirlin and
• Ivan S. Mukhin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 146–154, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.17

• diffraction (RHEED) patterns: we did not observe (7 × 7) a Si surface reconstruction pattern while cooling down the substrate that was subjected to the low temperature annealing. On the contrary, when the high temperature annealing (at least 920 °С) was applied, we observed a clear (7 × 7) reconstruction

Adsorption characteristics of Er₃N@C₈₀on W(110) and Au(111) studied via scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy

• Sebastian Schimmel,
• Zhixiang Sun,
• Danny Baumann,
• Denis Krylov,
• Nataliya Samoylova,
• Alexey Popov,
• Bernd Büchner and
• Christian Hess

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1127–1134, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.114

• edge that is orientated along the [110]-direction would lead to an in phase monolayer. Another interesting observation concerns the Au(111) surface reconstruction at the interface regions. As is evident from Figure 2a,b and Figure 3a,b, the reconstruction is modified by the interaction of the molecules

• clear change of the reconstruction of the Au(111) surface. Considering the fact that the surface reconstruction of the pristine Au(111) is driven by a remarkable energy gain on 20 meV per Au-atom [22], and that van der Waals bond molecular layers on Au(111) typically leave the herringbone reconstruction

Ordering of Zn-centered porphyrin and phthalocyanine on TiO₂(011): STM studies

• Piotr Olszowski,
• Lukasz Zajac,
• Szymon Godlewski,
• Bartosz Such,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Res Jöhr,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Marek Szymonski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 99–107, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.11

• previously reported observations for the CuPc wetting layer [18][19], the most likely locations of the ZnPc adsorption sites are over the oxygen protruding atoms of the substrate reconstruction rows. It is seen that the molecules are located over every second surface reconstruction zig-zag row accommodating

• cycles of Ar+ ion sputtering at 1 keV energy, followed by annealing at 1040 K. The ball-model of the TiO2(011)-(2×1) surface reconstruction is presented in Figure 7 together with a high-resolution STM image of the same surface prepared in our UHV system as outlined above. The characteristic zig-zag rows

Scanning probe microscopy studies on the adsorption of selected molecular dyes on titania

• Jakub S. Prauzner-Bechcicki,
• Lukasz Zajac,
• Piotr Olszowski,
• Res Jöhr,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Bartosz Such,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Marek Szymonski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1642–1653, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.156

• -tetraphenylporphyrinzinc(II) (ZnTPP) with 5-(4-carboxyphenyl)-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrinzinc(II) (COOH-ZnTPP) on the (011) surface of TiO2. At a low coverage, ZnTPP molecules adsorb in a flat-lying conformation and are very mobile on the surface, with their motion limited to surface reconstruction rows, i.e., along the

Rigid multipodal platforms for metal surfaces

• Michal Valášek,
• Marcin Lindner and
• Marcel Mayor

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 374–405, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.34

• -known long range 22 × √3 herringbone reconstruction with both face-centered cubic (fcc) and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) domains. But the absorption of sulfur-containing molecules (e.g., thiol, disulfide) on Au(111) forms a strong covalent bond and induces significant changes in the surface

• reconstruction of clean Au(111). This surface morphology changes related to adsorbed molecules can be visualized by STM techniques and provided us a reliable description of the interactions between adsorbate and substrate. Not only thiols but also sulfides (R–S–R), which form weaker molecule–substrate bonds than

Determination of Young’s modulus of Sb₂S₃ nanowires by in situ resonance and bending methods

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Alexander I. Livshits,
• Juris Prikulis,
• Subhajit Biswas,
• Justin D. Holmes and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 278–283, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.25

• from surface atoms being in a different environment than the bulk. An increasing surface-to-volume ratio may lead to the observed stiffening trend that has been described using a number of mechanisms such as surface reconstruction [28], surface bond saturation [41] and bulk nonlinear elasticity [42

Simulation of thermal stress and buckling instability in Si/Ge and Ge/Si core/shell nanowires

• Suvankar Das,
• Amitava Moitra,
• Mishreyee Bhattacharya and
• Amlan Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1970–1977, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.201

• that an infinitely long, freestanding NW is effectively simulated. In these simulations, the Tersoff potential designed for multicomponent systems [26] has been used to model the interatomic interactions. Although this form of potential does not capture the features of surface reconstruction very well

• , it would be significant only for a nanowire diameter of less than 2–3 nm. As the surface/volume ratio decays rapidly with increasing wire thickness, the surface reconstruction is not expected to dramatically affect the Young’s modulus or thermal expansion coefficient of 10 nm diameter nanowires. The

Transformations of PTCDA structures on rutile TiO₂ induced by thermal annealing and intermolecular forces

• Szymon Godlewski,
• Jakub S. Prauzner-Bechcicki,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Ernst Meyer and
• Marek Szymoński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1498–1507, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.155

• on the TiO2(110) surface (a); (b) magnified image showing the position of the PTCDA molecule relative to the surface rows; for clarity, the image contrast inside the rectangle is adjusted to improve the visibility of surface reconstruction rows, and a single molecule STM image (two lobes) is marked

Si/Ge intermixing during Ge Stranski–Krastanov growth

• Alain Portavoce,
• Khalid Hoummada,
• Antoine Ronda,
• Dominique Mangelinck and
• Isabelle Berbezier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2374–2382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.246

• [41]. Ordered domains were shown to be located in a limited region of the islands, and LeGoues et al. [42] showed that Si/Ge ordering is likely linked to surface reconstruction. Recently, atom-scale Monte Carlo simulations showed that ordering domains in dome islands could indeed correspond to a

Probing the electronic transport on the reconstructed Au/Ge(001) surface

• Franciszek Krok,
• Mark R. Kaspers,
• Alexander M. Bernhart,
• Marek Nikiel,
• Benedykt R. Jany,
• Paulina Indyka,
• Mateusz Wojtaszek,
• Rolf Möller and
• Christian A. Bobisch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1463–1471, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.159

• µec on the gold-induced Ge(001)-c(8 × 2)-Au surface reconstruction while a lateral current flows through the sample. On the reconstruction and across domain boundaries we find that µec shows a constant gradient as a function of the position between the contacts. In addition, nanoscale Au clusters on

• the surface do not show an electronic coupling to the gold-induced surface reconstruction. In combination with high resolution scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, we conclude that an additional transport channel buried about 2 nm underneath the surface represents a major

Adsorption of the ionic liquid [BMP][TFSA] on Au(111) and Ag(111): substrate effects on the structure formation investigated by STM

• Benedikt Uhl,
• Florian Buchner,
• Dorothea Alwast,
• Nadja Wagner and
• R. Jürgen Behm

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 903–918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.102

• IL adsorbates appear as round shaped protrusions and form distinct islands on the surface. In between the islands, adsorbate free Au(111) surface areas appear, where the typical [27] zig-zag pattern of the Au(111) surface reconstruction is resolved (see inset with enhanced contrast in Figure 1b). The

• obvious influence of the terrace width discernible. This difference is most easily explained by the presence/absence of the Au(111) reconstruction pattern, which seems to severely affect the ordering behavior. Keeping in mind that on Au(111) the elbows of the surface reconstruction act as nucleation sites

• crystalline phase tends to grow in domains/islands which are limited by the domain boundaries of the herringbone reconstruction, i.e., by the bending points of the dislocation lines. This can be seen in Figure 5a, where the positions of the bending points of the Au(111) surface reconstruction are connected

Quantitative multichannel NC-AFM data analysis of graphene growth on SiC(0001)

• Christian Held,
• Thomas Seyller and
• Roland Bennewitz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 179–185, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.19

• the unit cell are plausible candidates to explain the variations in contact potential. These differences could express themselves as a variation of the surface reconstruction (e.g., (5×5), (6×6) versus (6√3×6√3)R30°) of the interface layer [4]. Finally, we add a few comments on the data quality in the

Effect of the tip state during qPlus noncontact atomic force microscopy of Si(100) at 5 K: Probing the probe

• Adam Sweetman,
• Sam Jarvis,
• Rosanna Danza and
• Philip Moriarty

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 25–32, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.3

• ) “Crescent” (empty green squares), (g) “Wormlike” (empty pink triangles), (h) “Discuslike” (empty black circles), (j) Ball and stick model of the Si(100) surface reconstruction showing in-phase (p(2 × 2)) and out-of-phase (c(4 × 2)) dimer buckling. Larger scans of (a) inverted and (b) high-setpoint inverted