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

• nanoimprinting process and coating process on the final topography of the structures are studied. The experimental results show that the Raman intensity of the Au-film-coated PDMS substrate is influenced by the topography of the micro/nanostructures and by the thickness of the Au film. The Raman intensity of

• substrate was employed to rectify the Raman spectrum, and no specific peaks were found. The Raman intensity R6G probe peak was chosen as 1362 cm−1 for the experiment, which is the major Raman peak for R6G molecules. A Dimension Icon AFM system (Bruker, Germany) was used to observe the topography of the

Material property analytical relations for the case of an AFM probe tapping a viscoelastic surface containing multiple characteristic times

• Enrique A. López-Guerra and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2230–2244, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.223

• mathematical treatment shares close relationship to the well-established bulk technique, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA [14][15]). The analytical simplicity afforded by permanent tip–sample contact, however, comes with the shortcomings of loss of accuracy in the acquisition of the topography and sample

Ta₂N₃ nanocrystals grown in Al₂O₃ thin layers

• Krešimir Salamon,
• Maja Buljan,
• Iva Šarić,
• Mladen Petravić and
• Sigrid Bernstorff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2162–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.215

• a loss of topography conformation among adjacent interfaces. In any case, it is important to note that annealing promotes the formation of NPs, the morphology of which depend on the temperature as well as on the thickness of the metallic layer. A more detailed information about the shape and size of

• the same time, due to the high diffusion rate and nanoparticle growth, the interface topography changes as well. These stochastic rearrangements of interfaces are completely independent from layer to layer, resulting in the loss of vertical correlations among the interface topographies. This explains

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• [34], a conductive nanoscale probe is scanned in continuous contact (static mode) with the sample while obtaining the topography. The local current is mapped by applying a bias voltage. The electrical properties of the nanocomposites were investigated using C-AFM and compared to the bare polymer. In C

• . The fundamental eigenmode is operated in amplitude modulation, i.e., there is a feedback loop modulating the oscillation amplitude for acquiring the topography of the sample, while the higher eigenmode (in this case the second eigenmode) is operated with constant excitation frequency and amplitude

• at two frequencies, one lower and one higher than the contact-resonance frequency. Besides measuring the topography (by maintaining a constant deflection setpoint), the recorded amplitude and phase for each frequency are used to calculate the contact-resonance frequency and quality factor at each

A comparative study of the nanoscale and macroscale tribological attributes of alumina and stainless steel surfaces immersed in aqueous suspensions of positively or negatively charged nanodiamonds

• Colin K. Curtis,
• Antonin Marek,
• Alex I. Smirnov and
• Jacqueline Krim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2045–2059, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.205

• measurement experiments were complemented by AFM and SEM measurements of the surface topography before and after the ND exposure, as well as macroscale measurements of µk. The materials were inspired by Liu et al.’s suggestion that differences in the tribological properties between +ND and −ND suspensions

Identifying the nature of surface chemical modification for directed self-assembly of block copolymers

• Laura Evangelio,
• Federico Gramazio,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Michaela Gorgoi,
• Francisco Miguel Espinosa,
• Ricardo García,
• Francesc Pérez-Murano and
• Jordi Fraxedas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1972–1981, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.198

• . Additional information can be obtained from AFM experiments. Figure 4a,b shows the AFM topography and phase images, respectively, of the chemical guiding patterns [20]. In both images the brighter lines correspond to the unexposed PS–OH brush layer, while the darker lines stand for the modified surface. The

• sample cooled in air resulted in a surface which did not show any contrast when performing the AFM phase characterization. Furthermore, the oxygen plasma exposure induces a removal of about 0.4 nm of PS–OH, as deduced from the topography image in Figure 4a. This is in line with complementary X-ray

• reflectometry (XRR) results performed on annealed brush layers which deliver a brush thickness for unexposed and exposed surfaces of 4.6 nm and 3.9 nm, respectively. The presence of some topography between the stripes may enhance the guiding efficiency of the chemical patterns [7][8][9], but such generated

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

• polyethylene glycol (PEG) to lubricate Si surfaces. The friction coefficients were measured in a nanotribometer. The viscosity of the PEG + IL mixtures as well as their contact angles on the Si surface were measured. The topography and chemical composition of the substrates surfaces were determined with atomic

• topography and chemical composition of the substrates surfaces were determined with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. Correlations between the obtained friction coefficients and the surface properties as well as the lubricants viscosity were attempted in

Intercalation of Si between MoS₂ layers

• Rik van Bremen,
• Qirong Yao,
• Soumya Banerjee,
• Deniz Cakir,
• Nuri Oncel and
• Harold J. W. Zandvliet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1952–1960, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.196

• tunnel current is fed into the lock-in amplifier. The output signal of the lock-in amplifier, which is proportional to dI/dz, is measured simultaneously with the topography. MoS2 samples used for the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiments were purchased from nanoScience Instruments. The MoS2

• differ significantly as is shown in Figure S2 in Supporting Information File 1. In order to remove the large-scale height variation from the topography scan, we simultaneously recorded a spatial map of dI/dz (Figure 3). The dI/dz signal only depends on the effective work function, also referred to as the

• order to yield a stronger signal in the XPS measurements. STM topography images with a higher coverage can be found in Figure S1 in Supporting Information File 1. The XPS data show two peaks associated with Si. The smaller peak, located at 98.13 eV, can be attributed to pristine Si. The other peak

Application of visible-light photosensitization to form alkyl-radical-derived thin films on gold

• Rashanique D. Quarels,
• Xianglin Zhai,
• Neepa Kuruppu,
• Jenny K. Hedlund,
• Ashley A. Ellsworth,
• Amy V. Walker,
• Jayne C. Garno and
• Justin R. Ragains

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1863–1877, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.187

• spring constant of 40 N/m (Budget Sensors, Innovative Solutions Bulgaria Ltd.) were used to acquire topography and corresponding phase images with tapping mode. Nanoshaving experiments were conducted using a liquid cell containing ethanolic solution. Contact mode in liquid was used for nanoshaving using

• mode in ambient conditions. The sites of nanopores of uncovered gold substrate that were protected by the mesosphere mask appear as dark circles (Figure 1a). The characteristic features of a gold surface such as triangular terrace steps and flat domains are apparent in the topography image. The

• -nanoshaving film is shown in Figure 2b, and does not reveal any displacement. The nanopores persist with the original shapes and location within the topography frame, indicating that the film was not removed by the scratching action of the AFM tip. At the right edges of nanopores there are a few line patterns

Structural model of silicene-like nanoribbons on a Pb-reconstructed Si(111) surface

• Agnieszka Stępniak-Dybala and
• Mariusz Krawiec

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1836–1843, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.185

• really been obtained. The same problem concerns Si nanoribbons (NRs) grown on the Ag(110) surface [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. The scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images show isolated 1.6 nm wide ribbons [32][35][41]. However, no hexagonal structure is visible in the STM topography. First

• the Si(111) surface. Figure 1a shows an example of such NRs as revealed by STM topography measurements. The NRs consist of Si atoms directly adsorbed on the Si(111) surface, as it was argued in [47], based on geometry considerations and STM measurements. It is also known, that Pb atoms strongly

• rather then separated Si chains, as the inter-chain separations of 0.86 Å cannot be assigned to any Si–Si distance, and the modulations of STM topography across and along the nanostructures are very similar to each other. Moreover it is difficult to explain why the chains always grow in pairs. An

Non-intuitive clustering of 9,10-phenanthrenequinone on Au(111)

• Ryan D. Brown,
• Rebecca C. Quardokus,
• Natalie A. Wasio,
• Jacob P. Petersen,
• Angela M. Silski,
• Steven A. Corcelli and
• S. Alex Kandel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1801–1807, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.181

• basis-set superposition error, the Boys and Bernardi counterpoise correction was applied to all systems. 9,10-phenanthrenequinone (left) and 9-fluorenone (right). a) STM topography image, 250 Å × 250 Å, of 9,10-phenanthrenequinone on Au(111), with a representative row (red) and some representative

• tetramers (blue) highlighted. b) STM topography image, 250 Å × 245 Å, of a boundary of tetramers and ordered rows on a single terrace. c) A 79 Å × 72 Å topography image (20 pA, +1.00 V) of an isolated tetramer in a low-coverage region of the surface. A 237 Å × 237 Å STM topography image acquired at a tip

• topography image containing a region of disordered molecules and rectangular tetramers, with some representative tetramers highlighted in blue. A composite image of the 59 fully-resolved tetramers present in this image is shown in panel b), with the proposed molecular conformation as an overlay. The average

(Metallo)porphyrins for potential materials science applications

• Lars Smykalla,
• Carola Mende,
• Michael Fronk,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Michael Hietschold,
• Georgeta Salvan,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn,
• Oliver G. Schmidt,
• Tobias Rüffer and
• Heinrich Lang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1786–1800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.180

• the thin film topography and conductivity were acquired simultaneously the correlation of both features is straightforward. The electrical response of the different organic films appears to be reversible, which suggests that the structural integrity of the molecules is preserved after the electrical

• allow for the engineering of manifold extended 2D materials with novel transport properties. One major approach for surface-confined polymerization is the halogen-based Ullmann coupling reaction [42]. Thereby, the topography and also electronic properties of the covalent organic framework are determined

• appear, may stimulate joint approaches of material scientists to further explore their application potential. Surface topography determined by AFM as a function of thickness. Cu-TMPP (= CuTPP(OMe)4) (a) 35 nm, (b) 82 nm, and (c) 117 nm thick. Organic films are deposited on a 30 nm thick Ni substrate

Laser processing of thin-film multilayer structures: comparison between a 3D thermal model and experimental results

• Babak B. Naghshine and
• Amirkianoosh Kiani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1749–1759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.176

• single pulse on the surface (Figure 8). Three-dimensional (3D) optical profiler A Zeta-20 Optical Profiler (Zeta Instruments) was used to obtain surface profiles of the samples for quantitative topography measurements. This optical profiler can capture 2D and 3D images of a surface, which allows us to

Air–water interface of submerged superhydrophobic surfaces imaged by atomic force microscopy

• Markus Moosmann,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Matthias Mail

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1671–1679, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.167

• , is unavoidable as it is caused by the pyramidal shape of the AFM tip. The actual topography of the pillars is schematically drawn in grey. When the sample is submerged, an air layer is maintained and the air–water interface can be imaged by AFM using the nondynamic contact mode (Figure 5c). In this

• height of 2 µm. The light coloration on the right side of each pillar is an unavoidable artifact in AFM imaging, originating from the pyramidal shape of the AFM tip. This is also displayed by the corresponding cross section (red line) in b). The actual topography is also schematically illustrated (grey

Process-specific mechanisms of vertically oriented graphene growth in plasmas

• Subrata Ghosh,
• Shyamal R. Polaki,
• Niranjan Kumar,
• Sankarakumar Amirthapandian,
• Mohamed Kamruddin and
• Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1658–1670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.166

• desired morphology. Wetting properties The desired wetting properties of materials are one of the important aspects from the application point of view. This wetting property depends on combined effect of several extrinsic and intrinsic factors including morphology, topography, surface texture, chemical

Oxidative stabilization of polyacrylonitrile nanofibers and carbon nanofibers containing graphene oxide (GO): a spectroscopic and electrochemical study

• İlknur Gergin,
• Ezgi Ismar and
• A. Sezai Sarac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1616–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.161

• (Princeton Applied Research, Tennessee, USA). The surface topography of the fibers was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) with Nanosurf Easy-Scan2TM software. AFM analyses were performed with a non-contact mode by using NCLR-10 model Al-coating silicon tips with 7 μm thickness, 225 μm length, 38 μm

• observe the topography of nanofibers. Oxidized PAN nanofibers formed with GO nanosheets can be seen in AFM image (Figure 9). The nanofibers have rough surfaces with flaky shapes attributed to GO. The morphology of GO is also shown in Figure 10a. Layers of GO can be seen in the SEM image. Also, some layer

High-speed dynamic-mode atomic force microscopy imaging of polymers: an adaptive multiloop-mode approach

• Juan Ren and
• Qingze Zou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1563–1570, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.158

• control mechanism applied [4][6]. Due to the time delay inevitably induced into the feedback loop for maintaining the RMS tapping amplitude during imaging, errors in tracking the sample topography can quickly result in loss of the tip–sample contact and annihilation of the probe tapping when the imaging

• deflection (the TM deflection) – in addition to the transitional RMS amplitude feedback control, along with an online iterative feedforward control to track the sample topography. Although this AMLM technique has been proposed recently [1], imaging results of only one polymer sample at large scanning size

• (50 μm) were obtained and presented. The performance, usability, and particularly, robustness of the AMLM technique for a variety of materials of different topography characteristics and different heterogeneous material properties, and at different imaging sizes have not been yet elucidated. As a

A review of demodulation techniques for amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy

• Michael G. Ruppert,
• David M. Harcombe,
• Michael R. P. Ragazzon,
• S. O. Reza Moheimani and
• Andrew J. Fleming

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1407–1426, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.142

• objects and materials properties for both research and industry [11][12]. Dynamic operating modes of the AFM can map the surface topography of a specimen with high spatial resolution by scanning a sharp tip located at the end of an actively driven microcantilever over the surface of a sample. Due to the

Adsorption and electronic properties of pentacene on thin dielectric decoupling layers

• Sebastian Koslowski,
• Daniel Rosenblatt,
• Alexander Kabakchiev,
• Klaus Kuhnke,
• Klaus Kern and
• Uta Schlickum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1388–1395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.140

• 50 mV at a frequency of 832 Hz. a) STM topography image of pentacene on h-BN (U = −1 V, I = 50 pA). b) Large-scale STM topography image of pentacene on h-BN. The white circles indicate the preferential adsorption sites illustrated in the inset. Inset: Illustration of the six possible pentacene

Deposition of exchange-coupled dinickel complexes on gold substrates utilizing ambidentate mercapto-carboxylato ligands

• Martin Börner,
• Laura Blömer,
• Marcus Kischel,
• Peter Richter,
• Georgeta Salvan,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Maria E. N. Fuentes,
• Carlos C. B. Bufon,
• Daniel Grimm,
• Oliver G. Schmidt,
• Daniel Breite,
• Bernd Abel and
• Berthold Kersting

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1375–1387, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.139

• followed by washing with EtOH and drying under N2 flow. The modified Au(111) surfaces were examined by contact angle measurements, AFM topography analysis, and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Table 2 lists the results. The data for 2 and 3 and other compounds have been included for comparison. Static contact

• lack end groups for surface fixation (and which are apparently not chemisorbed on the gold surfaces), as suggested by contact angles close to that of the bare gold. The topography of the gold surfaces was further investigated by AFM microscopy. Figure 5 shows the topography of a sample of [Ni2L(HL5

• . Atomic force microscopy An Agilent 5600LS AFM system was used to collect topography data under Ar and ambient conditions in order to keep the integrity of the organic system. Measurements were performed in tapping mode in order to minimize the contact between the AFM probe and the sample surface and

Comprehensive Raman study of epitaxial silicene-related phases on Ag(111)

• Dmytro Solonenko,
• Ovidiu D. Gordan,
• Guy Le Lay,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn and
• Patrick Vogt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1357–1365, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.137

• prepare dominant multiple or single domains. At higher preparation temperatures the “” symmetry becomes dominant in LEED measurements and is finally observed solely for deposition temperatures above 250 °C (Figure 1d, inset). The STM topography image of this debated structure (Figure 1d) reveals a Moiré

• recorded on samples after Si deposition at room temperature with coverages of 1 ML and 5 MLs. (b) Ex situ AFM topography measurement of the Ag(111) surface after the 1 ML deposition at room temperature. Inset: phase image. (c) Height profile, along the line in (b). Inset: height distribution of the

• features in the AFM topography image. (d) Raman spectra of samples with nominal 1 ML amount of Si deposited at 290 °C and 350 °C. Fitted Raman spectra of silicene-related structures: dominant (3times3)/(4×4) (epitaxial silicene) (220 °C), “mixed phase” (250 °C), and “” structure (280 °C). The experimental

Charge transport in organic nanocrystal diodes based on rolled-up robust nanomembrane contacts

• Vineeth Kumar Bandari,
• Lakshmi Varadharajan,
• Longqian Xu,
• Abdur Rehman Jalil,
• Mirunalini Devarajulu,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Feng Zhu and
• Oliver G. Schmidt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1277–1282, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.129

• . (e) AFM topography image of the F16CuPc/VOPc/F16CuPc nanostructures. (a) I–V characteristics of three kinds of nanopyramid structures: pure VOPc (black), F16CuPc/VOPc (red) and F16CuPc/VOPc/F16CuPc (blue), (b) ln(I)–ln(V) plot showing the transition of transport regimes from ohmic to SCL. (a) Current

Nanotopographical control of surfaces using chemical vapor deposition processes

• Meike Koenig and
• Joerg Lahann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1250–1256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.126

• method to produce periodic wrinkle structures on the surface of polymer films using prestrained substrates [28]. Various polymers were deposited on prestrained PDMS substrates using iCVD. The subsequent release of the strain leads to microstructured wrinkles, where the topography is controlled by tuning

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

• ) shows the out-of-phase oriented Er3N@C80-monolayer (right half) on Au(111). The closed packed direction of the molecules reveals a 30°-angle to the -direction as described by the arrows inside the FFT-image (upper right corner) and the real space topography. The I/U-spectrum (a) and the normalized dlnI

Growth, structure and stability of sputter-deposited MoS₂ thin films

• Reinhard Kaindl,
• Bernhard C. Bayer,
• Roland Resel,
• Thomas Müller,
• Viera Skakalova,
• Gerlinde Habler,
• Rainer Abart,
• Alexey S. Cherevan,
• Dominik Eder,
• Maxime Blatter,
• Fabian Fischer,
• Jannik C. Meyer,
• Dmitry K. Polyushkin and
• Wolfgang Waldhauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.113

• Surface morphology, structure and chemical composition of MoS2 thin films deposited at RT or 400 °C The surface morphologies of our MoS2 thin films deposited at RT or 400 °C are displayed in Figure 1a and b. Films deposited at RT appear generally smooth, homogeneous and without topography contrast in the