With the progress in fabricating more energy efficient and sustainable devices, an increased need for advanced materials and processing techniques arises that becomes increasingly challenging and demands for new analysis techniques. In particular excellent spatial resolution together with high-sensitivity chemical information at the nanoscale are of utmost importance for future developments. These nanoanalytical techniques need detailed understanding of the physical processes included in both the device structures and detection techniques. A typical setup includes a probe (such as tip, ion beam or electron beam), the condition of the sample and the interaction between them, which all need to be extensively investigated by simulations and modeling in order to obtain an in-depth and reliable understanding and accurate physical models. Furthermore, a reliable and easy way to extract a maximum of information out of the multimodal datasets, efficient data visualization strategies, and methods for analysis, mining and modeling are of utmost importance. This Thematic Series groups six exciting articles around the aforementioned aspects of nanoanalytics, describing the development of both new instrumentation as well as new methodologies.
Figure 1: EFTEM images of S1: (a) image in fresh area, (c) after about 10 min exposure to an intense electron...
Figure 2: EFTEM images of references samples S2 and S3: (a) S2 irradiated with a low dose, (b) S2 irradiated ...
Figure 3: EFTEM images of S4 (a,b) and S5 (c): (a) overview image of S4 illustrating severe sample damage cau...
Figure 4: EFTEM images and corresponding Si NC size distributions of S5-S9: (a) S5 (10 nm SiO0.93), (b) S6 (4...
Figure 1: PVP/PS polymer blend after Cs+ bombardment of 1.02 × 1016 ions/cm2: The SIMS recorded secondary ion...
Figure 2: 52Cr16O− (a) and 27Al16O− (b) secondary ion intensity recorded by the NanoSIMS instrument during th...
Figure 3: Snapshot of SIMS-SPM reconstructed surface before (a) and during (b) SIMS analysis performed on Ti(...
Figure 4: Chemical image showing the 12C2− secondary ion intensity recorded from the TaN reticule with a 10 n...
Figure 5: 2D mapping of 24Mg16O− secondary ion signal summed over analysis depth (a). 3D volume reconstructio...
Figure 1: (A) Mass change of the nanoparticle powders (%) with respect to the temperature variation. (B) Colo...
Figure 2: TEM images of magnetite nanoparticles before (as-prepared) (A, B, C) and after the heating process ...
Figure 3: X-ray pattern of MNP-1 nanoparticles after the heating process.
Figure 4: X-ray pattern of MNP-2 nanoparticles after the heating process.
Figure 5: X-ray pattern of MNP-3 nanoparticles after the heating process.
Figure 6: DSC curves of reference nanoparticles before heating (A) and after heating at 500 °C (B).
Figure 7: IR spectra of magnetite nanoparticles (A) MNP-1, (B) MNP-2, (C) MNP-3 before and during the heating...
Figure 8: SQUID measurements for (A) MNP-1, (B) MNP-2, and (C) MNP-3.
Figure 9: Mössbauer spectra of nanoparticles tested under different temperatures: (A) MNP-1, (B) MNP-2, (C) M...
Figure 1: Schematic representation of the OP model. (a) A representative force–distance curve for the OP mode...
Figure 2: SPM control units and interconnections for a single tower system [17].
Figure 3: Positioning of the multi-probe system inside the acoustic chamber.
Figure 4: Experimental setup demonstrating the proposed two probe nanoindentation technique.
Figure 5: An example resonance response of AFM probes used in the experiments.
Figure 6: Experimental data showing AFM probe measurements on top of the diamond indenter for a fused silica ...
Figure 7: Fused silica force–distance curve.
Figure 8: Spring constant vs maximum depth of penetration.
Figure 9: Finite element analysis data as compared to experimental data.
Figure 10: Images of cube-corner diamond tip used in nanoindentation experiments. (a) A 3D representation of A...
Figure 11: Force–distance curves on silicon substrate.
Figure 12: Topography and cross-sectional profile of indent on silicon.
Figure 13: Force–distance curves on Corning Eagle Glass substrate.
Figure 14: Power-law fitting to the unloading part of a silicon force–distance curve.
Figure 1: (a) (5 × 5) μm2 and (b) (750 × 750) nm2 topographic images of a 20 nm thick Co layer grown onto a s...
Figure 2: MFM images performed to show the lateral resolution obtained with commercial (a) standard, (b) low-...
Figure 3: (a) Topography of a high-density HDD, recorded with a custom-made tip with 20 nm coating. The later...