Increasing the performance of a superconducting spin valve using a Heusler alloy

• Andrey A. Kamashev,
• Aidar A. Validov,
• Joachim Schumann,
• Vladislav Kataev,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Yakov V. Fominov and
• Ilgiz A. Garifullin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1764–1769, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.167

• layer in a CoOx/F1/Cu/F2/Cu/Pb heterostructure a specially prepared thin film of the Heusler alloy Co2Cr1−xFexAl with a small degree of the spin polarization of the conduction band significantly increases the magnitude of the superconducting spin valve effect ΔTc as compared to similar systems with the

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

• .9.164 Abstract Magnetic films of magnetite (Fe3O4) with controlled defects, so-called antidot arrays, were synthesized by a new technique called AFIR. AFIR consists of the deposition of a thin film by atomic layer deposition, the generation of square and hexagonal arrays of holes using focused ion beam

• + reduction), and it consists of the deposition of a thin film by ALD, the generation of holes by means of FIB, and the thermal reduction of the antidot arrays. AFIR opens a new route to manufacture ordered antidot arrays of oxides with variable lattice parameters, arrays that have not been synthesized by

• , which has a pyramidal geometry with 25° slope. Once the thermal reduction is performed, the morphology is preserved and the Fe3O4 antidots are obtained. Only a slight reduction in roughness is produced: In the AFM measurements performed in the thin film regions, the roughness of the initial Fe2O3 film

Toward the use of CVD-grown MoS₂ nanosheets as field-emission source

• Geetanjali Deokar,
• Nitul S. Rajput,
• Junjie Li,
• Francis Leonard Deepak,
• Wei Ou-Yang,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jean-Francois Colomer and
• Mustapha Jouiad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1686–1694, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.160

• spectrometer with a 250 μm diameter X-ray spot. The FE properties of the MoS2 NSs film transferred on the conductive FTO glass substrate (Figure 5) were measured using a custom-built conventional diode-type structure over a 1 cm2 area in a chamber under high vacuum (4.0 × 10−6 mbar). The thin film of MoS2 NSs

Sulfur-, nitrogen- and platinum-doped titania thin films with high catalytic efficiency under visible-light illumination

• Boštjan Žener,
• Lev Matoh,
• Giorgio Carraro,
• Bojan Miljević and
• Romana Cerc Korošec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1629–1640, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.155

• the form of a thin film significantly reduces some of the drawbacks of the practical application of heterogeneous photocatalysis; for instance, the need to separate the photocatalyst from the suspension after the photocatalytic reaction, or the tendency of the particles to agglomerate in aqueous

Nanoscale electrochemical response of lithium-ion cathodes: a combined study using C-AFM and SIMS

• Jonathan Op de Beeck,
• Nouha Labyedh,
• Alfonso Sepúlveda,
• Valentina Spampinato,
• Alexis Franquet,
• Thierry Conard,
• Philippe M. Vereecken,
• Wilfried Vandervorst and
• Umberto Celano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1623–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.154

• indicated. Keywords: all-solid-state microbatteries (ASB); conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM); Li-ion kinetics; secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS); 3D thin-film batteries; Findings Conventional Li-ion battery technology is undergoing continuous improvements in order to fulfil the increasing

Light extraction efficiency enhancement of flip-chip blue light-emitting diodes by anodic aluminum oxide

• Yi-Ru Huang,
• Yao-Ching Chiu,
• Kuan-Chieh Huang,
• Shao-Ying Ting,
• Po-Jui Chiang,
• Chih-Ming Lai,
• Chun-Ping Jen,
• Snow H. Tseng and
• Hsiang-Chen Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1602–1612, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.152

• microspheres and microlens arrays in thin-film flip-chip LEDs [20][21][22] and organic LEDs [23][24][25] has significantly improved the LEE. The use of microspheres and microlens arrays produced via the colloidal method has enabled the wafer-scale deposition of two-dimensional close-packed arrays with high

Optical near-field mapping of plasmonic nanostructures prepared by nanosphere lithography

• Gitanjali Kolhatkar,
• Alexandre Merlen,
• Jiawei Zhang,
• Chahinez Dab,
• Gregory Q. Wallace,
• François Lagugné-Labarthet and
• Andreas Ruediger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1536–1543, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.144

• spots due to higher and localized enhancement. Nevertheless, this technique is diffraction limited to a few hundred of nanometers as it is based on confocal microscopy measurements. Galarreta et al. [26] coated such triangular structures with an azopolymer thin film sensitive to laser irradiation and

Absence of free carriers in silicon nanocrystals grown from phosphorus- and boron-doped silicon-rich oxide and oxynitride

• Daniel Hiller,
• Julian López-Vidrier,
• Keita Nomoto,
• Michael Wahl,
• Wolfgang Bock,
• Tomáš Chlouba,
• František Trojánek,
• Sebastian Gutsch,
• Margit Zacharias,
• Dirk König,
• Petr Malý and
• Michael Kopnarski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1501–1511, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.141

• Nanotechnology, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, Germany The University of Sydney, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Sydney, Australia Institute for Surface and Thin Film Analysis GmbH (IFOS

Cathodoluminescence as a probe of the optical properties of resonant apertures in a metallic film

• Kalpana Singh,
• Evgeniy Panchenko,
• Babak Nasr,
• Amelia Liu,
• Lukas Wesemann,
• Timothy J. Davis and
• Ann Roberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1491–1500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.140

• including the thickness of the metal film [13]. Other than the excitations discussed above, sharp Fano resonances arising from the interference of two modes [14] have promising applications in sensing, switching and lasing. These resonances have been investigated in various structures such as thin film

Colorimetric detection of Cu²⁺ based on the formation of peptide–copper complexes on silver nanoparticle surfaces

• Gajanan Sampatrao Ghodake,
• Surendra Krishna Shinde,
• Rijuta Ganesh Saratale,
• Avinash Ashok Kadam,
• Ganesh Dattatraya Saratale,
• Asad Syed,
• Fuad Ameen and
• Dae-Young Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1414–1422, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.134

• grids. Shape, size-distribution, and images were observed on Tecnai G2 (FEI Company, USA). The XRD measurements were performed using a thin film sample containing the AgNPs (Rigaku Ultima-IV diffractometer, Cu Kα radiation). The centrifuged AgNPs were examined by FTIR spectroscopy using a Thermo

New 2D graphene hybrid composites as an effective base element of optical nanodevices

• Olga E. Glukhova,
• Igor S. Nefedov,
• Alexander S. Shalin and
• Мichael М. Slepchenkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1321–1327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.125

• , the established regularities of change in absorbance as a function of the angle of incidence of the electromagnetic wave allows us to suggest the possibility of using the CNT–graphene film as a polarizer for electro-optical and magneto-optical thin film modulators. The advantages of such polarizers

Formation mechanisms of boron oxide films fabricated by large-area electron beam-induced deposition of trimethyl borate

• Aiden A. Martin and
• Philip J. Depond

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1282–1287, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.120

• thin films [19][20]. Thin films were prepared using a novel, large-area deposition system designed for the directed deposition of macroscopic features using the EBID process. Deposition mechanisms of boron oxide from TMB precursor were determined from the thin-film deposition rate and stoichiometry as

Heterostuctures of 4-(chloromethyl)phenyltrichlorosilane and 5,10,15,20-tetra(4-pyridyl)-21H,23H-porphine prepared on Si(111) using particle lithography: Nanoscale characterization of the main steps of nanopatterning

• Phillip C. Chambers and
• Jayne C. Garno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1211–1219, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.112

• porphyrins (Figure 1d). Atomic force microscopy was used to characterize the resulting nanostructures after each step of the fabrication procedure. The attachment of the H2TPyP was confirmed by measuring changes in the width and height of nanostructures. Surface platform of nanoholes within a thin film of

• studies without nanopatterning steps investigated the application of CMPS as a coupling layer for the addition of H2TPyP to produce a porphyrin thin film [2][3]. Multilayer films are stabilized by siloxane bonds that form the backbone of the CMPS linker, as well as by weaker π–π interactions between the

• -chloromethyl)phenyltrichlorosilane (95%) were purchased from Gelest (Morrisville, PA). Preparation of OTS nanoholes within an OTS matrix film Particle lithography was used to prepare nanoholes within a thin film of octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) on Si(111). Silicon wafers (Ted Pella Inc. Redding, California

Circular dichroism of chiral Majorana states

• Javier Osca and
• Llorenç Serra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1194–1199, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.110

• for px ± ipy fields and, obviously, also a vanishing CD. Model We use the model of [17] for a quantum-anomalous Hall (3D) thin film in contact with two different superconductors. This model represents the device as two surfaces with a certain interaction between them, with Majorana states being

Semi-automatic spray pyrolysis deposition of thin, transparent, titania films as blocking layers for dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells

• Hana Krýsová,
• Josef Krýsa and
• Ladislav Kavan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1135–1145, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.105

• controlled by the NOVA software. The TiO2 thin film on FTO was the working electrode, the reference electrode was Ag/AgCl (3 M KCl) and a platinum rod was used as the counter electrode. The TiO2 films were illuminated from the front side by a Hg lamp (Oriel), and the TiO2 film area (1 cm2) was defined by a

Field-controlled ultrafast magnetization dynamics in two-dimensional nanoscale ferromagnetic antidot arrays

• Anulekha De,
• Sucheta Mondal,
• Sourav Sahoo,
• Saswati Barman,
• Yoshichika Otani,
• Rajib Kumar Mitra and
• Anjan Barman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1123–1134, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.104

• Oe−1, anisotropy field Hk = 0, saturation magnetization Ms = 860 emu cm−3, and exchange stiffness constant A = 1.3 × 10−6 erg cm−1. The material parameters were extracted by measuring the variation of precessional frequency (f) with bias magnetic field H for a Py thin film and by fitting them using

• irradiation of laser light. A PMMA/MMA bilayer resist was used for electron-beam lithography to prepare the resist pattern on the Py thin film followed by argon ion milling at a base pressure of 1 × 10−4 Torr with a beam current of 60 mA for 6 min for etching out the Py film from everywhere except the

Imaging of viscoelastic soft matter with small indentation using higher eigenmodes in single-eigenmode amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy

• Miead Nikfarjam,
• Enrique A. López-Guerra,
• Santiago D. Solares and
• Babak Eslami

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1116–1122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.103

• described in previous studies [29] and details can be found in the computational code provided in [26]. Experimental results Polystyrene thin film height measurements were performed using the same imaging modes as in the numerical simulations. All three measurements were performed with a single cantilever

• . Polystyrene thin-film topography images for AM-AFM using the fundamental eigenmode (a), AM-AFM using the second eigenmode (b), and bimodal AFM using the first two eigenmodes (c); (d) shows the scan line profiles, whereby the color code on the graph is based on the dashed lines in the images. The inset graph

A simple extension of the commonly used fitting equation for oscillatory structural forces in case of silica nanoparticle suspensions

• Sebastian Schön and
• Regine von Klitzing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1095–1107, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.101

• instruments, e.g., surface force apparatus (SFA) [2][4][5][6], thin film pressure balance (TFPB) [7][8][9][10][11], total internal reflection microscope (TIRM) [12][13][14][15][16], optical tweezers [17] or colloidal probe atomic force microscope (CP-AFM) [18][19][20][21]. Oscillatory forces have been

Room-temperature single-photon emitters in titanium dioxide optical defects

• Kelvin Chung,
• Yu H. Leung,
• Chap H. To,
• Aleksandra B. Djurišić and
• Snjezana Tomljenovic-Hanic

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1085–1094, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.100

• fluorescent features in all samples. The untreated and 450 °C films show point-like fluorescent features, whereas the 850 °C reveals filament-like fluorescent structures. The total area scanned for each thin film sample was approximately 1 × 1 cm2. The single-crystal rutile was 10 × 10 × 1.0 mm3 in size. It

• Seed Funding for Basic Research, The University of Hong Kong. We would also like to thank A. H. Piracha for additional help in annealing TiO2 thin film samples and D.A. Simpson for helpful discussion concerning the manuscript.

Single-crystalline FeCo nanoparticle-filled carbon nanotubes: synthesis, structural characterization and magnetic properties

• Rasha Ghunaim,
• Maik Scholz,
• Christine Damm,
• Bernd Rellinghaus,
• Rüdiger Klingeler,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Michael Mertig and
• Silke Hampel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1024–1034, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.95

• fills the CNTs. Characterization All samples were routinely investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with a Nova 200 NanoSEM from FEI Company operated at 15 kV and combined with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyzer (AMETEK). The SEM samples were prepared by placing a thin film of the sample

An implementation of spin–orbit coupling for band structure calculations with Gaussian basis sets: Two-dimensional topological crystals of Sb and Bi

• Sahar Pakdel,
• Mahdi Pourfath and
• J. J. Palacios

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1015–1023, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.94

• topological surface states (TSS), although coexisting with bulk bands at the Fermi energy [51][52][53][54]. Sb(111) in thin film form could become, in principle, a 3D (TI) if quantum confinement opened a gap in the bulk bands. However, for sufficiently thin films, the TSS situated on opposite surfaces can get

Automated image segmentation-assisted flattening of atomic force microscopy images

• Yuliang Wang,
• Tongda Lu,
• Xiaolai Li and
• Huimin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 975–985, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.91

• spin coating a thin film of polystyrene (PS) on a silicon (100) substrate at a speed of 500 rpm. Prior to spin coating, the silicon substrate was sequentially cleaned in a sonic bath of piranha solution, acetone and water for 30 minutes. The PS solution was obtained by dissolving PS particles

Electro-optical interfacial effects on a graphene/π-conjugated organic semiconductor hybrid system

• Karolline A. S. Araujo,
• Luiz A. Cury,
• Matheus J. S. Matos,
• Thales F. D. Fernandes,
• Luiz G. Cançado and
• Bernardo R. A. Neves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 963–974, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.90

• microscopy; self-assembly; Introduction Organic semiconductors offer a wide range of possible applications, from thin-film transistors to sensors and solar cells [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Their optical and electronic properties are strongly linked to intermolecular interaction parameters associated with molecular

• were obtained from Nacional de Grafite Ltd., Itapecerica – Brazil. Retinoic acid (RA) was purchased from Alfa Aesar and was used without further purification. The RA multilayer (bulk-like film) was produced by spread coating method [59][60][61]. Thin film samples were prepared by spin-coating (2200 rpm

Comparative study of sculptured metallic thin films deposited by oblique angle deposition at different temperatures

• Susann Liedtke,
• Christoph Grüner,
• Jürgen W. Gerlach and
• Bernd Rauschenbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 954–962, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.89

• film. Notice that the film thickness tθ>0° is yet larger than expected, because shadowing is induced by the oblique deposition geometry so that the film density of the deposited material ρθ>0° is reduced significantly. According to [26], the porosity P of the nanostructured thin film can then be

• vertically (θ = 0°) deposited thin film. The black arrows illustrate that the pole density maxima move as the substrate is tilted to oblique angles (compare (c)–(h)). (c) Calculated in-plane pole figures for the cubic Al{200} and (d) Al{111} planes in an obliquely (θ = 82°) deposited thin film. Measured in

• -plane pole figures for the cubic (e) Al{200} and (f) Al{111} planes in an obliquely (θ = 82°) deposited thin film at 77 K. (g) Al{200} and (h) Al{111} planes in an obliquely (θ = 82°) deposited thin film at 300 K. The direction of the crystallites is γ and the tilt angle of the columns is β, both

Scanning speed phenomenon in contact-resonance atomic force microscopy

• Christopher C. Glover,
• Jason P. Killgore and
• Ryan C. Tung

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 945–952, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.87

• to suppress stick–slip oscillations” [18]. It may be possible that the thin film acts as a source of viscous damping that allows the system to achieve a “steady sliding” state, above a critical velocity, which may have an effect on the CR measurements. The hydrodynamic lift force F varies

• believe that the presence of a thin film of water and hydrodynamic lift explains the scan speed-dependent phenomenon observed on our mica sample at 41% RH. Many studies have found that an “ice-like” or “solid-like” layer of structured water is found on hydrophilic surfaces under the right temperature

• the vibrating AFM tip leads to periodic compression and decompression of the underlying molecular lattice” [35]. The magnitude of the applied force, the rate of change of the applied force, and the tip–sample gap were also found to affect the properties of the thin film [17][33][36][37]. Antognozzi et