Electrical properties and mechanical stability of anchoring groups for single-molecule electronics

• Riccardo Frisenda,
• Simge Tarkuç,
• Elena Galán,
• Mickael L. Perrin,
• Rienk Eelkema,
• Ferdinand C. Grozema and
• Herre S. J. van der Zant

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1558–1567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.159

• plasma etching step, performed to suspend the central constriction, the sample is mounted in a three-point bending mechanism and electrically contacted. By bending the substrate with a pushing rod controlled by a stepper motor or a piezoelectric element, the gold wire can be broken thereby forming two

Fabrication of high-resolution nanostructures of complex geometry by the single-spot nanolithography method

• Alexander Samardak,
• Margarita Anisimova,
• Aleksei Samardak and
• Alexey Ognev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 976–986, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.101

• transfer of patterns onto the substrates using wet chemical or plasma etching is possible due to the high chemical and mechanical resistance of the carbonized templates. An example of a practical application of the single-spot lithography method is shown in Figure 14. The patterned polymer nanostructures

Electroburning of few-layer graphene flakes, epitaxial graphene, and turbostratic graphene discs in air and under vacuum

• Andrea Candini,
• Nils Richter,
• Domenica Convertino,
• Camilla Coletti,
• Franck Balestro,
• Wolfgang Wernsdorfer,
• Mathias Kläui and
• Marco Affronte

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 711–719, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.72

• plasma etching [17][18][19]. In order to address individual molecules the electroburning (EB) technique has been employed on exfoliated few-layer graphene on a substrate, showing electrostatic gating in molecular units at room temperature [10]. More recently, it has been shown how the yield of

• , graphene was patterned in the desired device geometry (two-probe device, the graphene channel is roughly 1 × 3 μm) by electron beam lithography and oxygen plasma etching (30 s in a Diener Femto plasma system at maximum power). Finally, the remaining metal parts (the bonding pads and the connections from

Boosting the local anodic oxidation of silicon through carbon nanofiber atomic force microscopy probes

• Gemma Rius,
• Matteo Lorenzoni,
• Soichiro Matsui,
• Masaki Tanemura and
• Francesc Perez-Murano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 215–222, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.20

• captured and subtracted. All tests are performed at room conditions, with a temperature of 25 °C and under a controlled relative humidity ranging from 20 to 40%. The Si substrates consist of chips cut from Si(100) wafers. Organic contamination on the chips was removed by oxygen plasma etching before the

Electrical contacts to individual SWCNTs: A review

• Wei Liu,
• Christofer Hierold and
• Miroslav Haluska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2202–2215, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.229

• the SWCNTs is increased, thus improving the charge carrier transport. In this way, the on-current was improved by one order of magnitude [64]. Cleanliness of SWCNT surface It is challenging to avoid resist residue from resist-based lithographic fabrication processes on SWCNTs. Although oxygen plasma

• etching is an efficient approach to remove the resist residue in silicon-based device fabrication processes [66], this harsh treatment destroys the CNT structure [67]. Several different approaches have been explored to preserve the clean surface of SWCNTs. Optimizing the resist wet-stripping procedure

Near-field photochemical and radiation-induced chemical fabrication of nanopatterns of a self-assembled silane monolayer

• Ulrich C. Fischer,
• Carsten Hentschel,
• Florian Fontein,
• Linda Stegemann,
• Christiane Hoeppener,
• Harald Fuchs and
• Stefanie Hoeppener

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1441–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.156

• -assembled monolayer (SAM) of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) is explored with three different processes: 1) a near-field photochemical process by photochemical bleaching of a monomolecular layer of dye molecules chemically bound to an APTES SAM, 2) a chemical process induced by oxygen plasma etching

• were explored: 1) a photochemical process, in which chemical nanopatterning is achieved by selective photochemical bleaching of a monolayer of dye molecules chemically bound to an APTES SAM; 2) a chemical process by oxygen-plasma etching as well as 3) a combined UV-photochemical and ozone-induced

Review of nanostructured devices for thermoelectric applications

• Giovanni Pennelli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1268–1284, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.141

• for increasing this value up to several hundreds of μV/K, such as plasma etching treatments [11], have been carried out successfully. A great enhancement of S has been predicted in graphene nanoribbons [14][15], and the use of a suitable array of nanoelectrodes has been proposed for obtaining a giant

• . Plasma etching/ reactive ion etching (RIE), which is a standard process in integrated circuit fabrication, can be used. However, a simple and more convenient technique is the wet silicon anisotropic etching in alkaline solutions [98][99], typically based on potassium hydroxide (KOH) or

• etches, which is limited not only by the etching selectivity but also by the reduced mechanical stability of very long and narrow nanowires. Deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) is a plasma etching technique that alternates vertical etching steps (for example by SF6) and polymerization steps (by CF4) [105

Hole-mask colloidal nanolithography combined with tilted-angle-rotation evaporation: A versatile method for fabrication of low-cost and large-area complex plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials

• Jun Zhao,
• Bettina Frank,
• Frank Neubrech,
• Chunjie Zhang,
• Paul V. Braun and
• Harald Giessen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 577–586, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.68

• different plasma etching machines. A good indication for successful etching is a suitable waviness of the sample afterwards, due to the removed PMMA around the mask-holes underneath. Additionally, SEM imaging is helpful to determine whether the PMMA layer has been etched all the way down and a sufficient

• adhesive tape. In order to eliminate residues the sample is then immersed into an acetone solution and treated in an ultrasonic bath for about 1 min. Some sensing applications, e.g., SEIRA, require further cleaning which can be realized by oxygen plasma etching (10 to 15 min). Details on mask preparation

• sufficient oxygen plasma etching time has been reached. PS nanospheres of 119 nm diameter were used in all four examples. A variety of different nanostructures fabricated by hole-mask colloidal lithography: (a) ellipses, (b) split-rings, (c) asymmetric double split-rings, (d) dimers, (e) pentamers, (f) three

3D nano-structures for laser nano-manipulation

• Gediminas Seniutinas,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Gediminas Gervinskas,
• Etienne Brasselet and
• Saulius Juodkazis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 534–541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.62

• films from nano-holes defined in a sacrificial PMMA mask, which was made by electron beam lithography, was carried out with a dry plasma etching tool in order to form well-like structures with a high aspect ratio (height/width ≈ 3–4) at the rims of the nano-holes. The extraordinary transmission through

• and after the re-sputtering step, with conical well structures formed at the rim of holes in the Au film. The plasma etching rate of PMMA was approximately 2.0–2.5 times higher than that of Au. The opening of the holes in the Au-film and the structural quality of samples were characterized by scanning

• the particle at a much more exposed position, which makes the particle accessible from all sides to inspection and imaging. In addition the distance from the substrate makes it easier to probe the particle without interfering with the trap. Conclusions We demonstrate a simple plasma etching procedure

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

• wettability of the VA-CNTs by grafting oxygen groups was also demonstrated by Lobo et al. [91] (Figure 9). They showed that an oxygen DC plasma etching post-treatment can modify radically the wettability of VA-CNTs films (oxygen flow rate of 1 sccm, at a pressure of 85 mTorr, −700 V, at a repetition rate of

• -containing compounds are exclusively grafted on the outer surface of the VA-CNT forest. A radio-frequency glow-discharge H2O-plasma etching method was used in 2002 by Huang and Dai [21], to purify the VA-CNTs. During VA-CNT synthesis, a thin layer of amorphous carbon covers the aligned nanomaterial film [107

• ] constituting an obstacle for certain applications. Water plasma etching was used to purify the sample and to remove the amorphous parasitic layer. When the plasma conditions are optimal, this method does not cause observable CNT structure or arrangement spoilage. On the contrary, when the conditions become

Sub-10 nm colloidal lithography for circuit-integrated spin-photo-electronic devices

• Adrian Iovan,
• Marco Fischer,
• Roberto Lo Conte and
• Vladislav Korenivski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 884–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.98

• particles by etching completes the fabrication of the nanomask, as illustrated in Figure 2d. The very sensitive process step of the downscaling of the particles is achieved by reactive plasma etching, which must be done in a very clean chamber [23] in order to have a uniform reduction in the particle size

• and 15 nm for 3 min etching time. Figure 3 thus illustrates the fine control of the particle size at ≈10 nm by varying the plasma etching time. The technological viability of the obtained polystyrene nanoparticle array depends on the ability to transfer it into a reliable mask to be used in subsequent

Tuning the properties of magnetic thin films by interaction with periodic nanostructures

• Ulf Wiedwald,
• Felix Haering,
• Stefan Nau,
• Carsten Schulze,
• Herbert Schletter,
• Denys Makarov,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Karsten Kuepper,
• Manfred Albrecht,
• Johannes Boneberg and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 831–842, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.93

• propagation are related to the nanostructure size and distance and in the simplest approximation not to the degree of hexagonal order. The homogeneous size reduction of close-packed monolayers was performed by isotropic oxygen plasma etching at a constant pressure of about 7 Pa and ambient temperature

• the self-assembly of PS particles and subsequent plasma etching ending up with well-separated nanostructures with adjustable sizes and distances. A linear dependence of the particle size with etching time has been observed down to particle sizes of 25 nm starting from initially 95 and 190 nm PS

• . Schematics of the sample preparation. Self-assembled, close-packed monolayers of PS spheres are deposited on a substrate. Isotropic oxygen-plasma etching results in the homogeneous size reduction of PS particles. Finally, a magnetic film is deposited onto the substrates and capped by a thin Pt layer for

The morphology of silver nanoparticles prepared by enzyme-induced reduction

• Henrik Schneidewind,
• Thomas Schüler,
• Katharina K. Strelau,
• Karina Weber,
• Dana Cialla,
• Marco Diegel,
• Roland Mattheis,
• Andreas Berger,
• Robert Möller and
• Jürgen Popp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 404–414, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.47

• 10 min each) followed by drying under nitrogen. Next, the surface was activated in an oxygen plasma etching step. In order to bind linker molecules (amino modified DNA) onto the surface, the substrates were chemically modified with 10 mM (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GOPS) in dried toluene

Template-assisted formation of microsized nanocrystalline CeO₂ tubes and their catalytic performance in the carboxylation of methanol

• Jörg J. Schneider,
• Meike Naumann,
• Christian Schäfer,
• Armin Brandner,
• Heiko J. Hofmann and
• Peter Claus

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 776–784, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.86

• to yield microstructured ceria tubes, which are composed of nanocrystalline ceria particles. The PMMA template is removed from the organic/inorganic hybrid material by radio frequency (rf) plasma etching followed by calcination of the ceramic green-body fibres. Microsized ceria (CeO2) tubes, with a

• are finally followed by dry O2 plasma etching and calcination to yield microsized ceria tubes composed of nanocrystalline, entangled ceria tubes which display a macroscopic matlike material morphology. Our process, however, is significantly different to the TUFT process in which both components, i.e

• majority of the polymer template. Removal of the PMMA solely by a thermal process, through calcination of the polymer/inorganic hybrid structure, results in a complete collapse of the resulting porous ceria structure and formation of a dense ceria film. The plasma etching process was followed by a final

Nanoscaled alloy formation from self-assembled elemental Co nanoparticles on top of Pt films

• Luyang Han,
• Ulf Wiedwald,
• Johannes Biskupek,
• Kai Fauth,
• Ute Kaiser and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 473–485, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.51

• ) substrates, respectively. For this purpose, metallic Co nanoparticles (diameter 7 nm) were prepared with a spacing of 100 nm by deposition of precursor-loaded reverse micelles, subsequent plasma etching and reduction on flat Pt surfaces. The samples were then annealed at successively higher temperatures

• ambient temperature the Pt films exhibited a (111) structure with a lateral grain size of 20–30 nm as estimated by SEM. On these two types of films metallic Co particles (diameter 7 nm) were prepared by a micellar approach and reactive plasma etching, resulting in interparticle distances of about 100 nm

Platinum nanoparticles from size adjusted functional colloidal particles generated by a seeded emulsion polymerization process

• Nicolas Vogel,
• Ulrich Ziener,
• Achim Manzke,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Johannes Biskupek,
• Clemens K. Weiss and
• Katharina Landfester

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 459–472, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.50

• the Experimental part. Varying the process parameters is possible within certain limits without influencing the results given below. In the saturated state as obtained by plasma etching, the small lumps forming the hexagonal arrangements always consist of independently nucleated small crystalline

• , containing either Pt precursor or SDS or both, oxygen plasma etching leads to a saturation of the particle diameter (Figure 8). In contrast, colloids of dispersion 4 which did not contain Pt precursor and were synthesized with Lutensol AT50, could be completely removed under identical etching conditions, as

• after 60 min isotropic oxygen plasma treatment. a) Loaded with Pt-precursor and synthesized with the surfactant Lutensol AT50 and b) unloaded but synthesized by using SDS (dispersion 2 and 3 of Figure 7). Saturated states after plasma etching: a) Closed surface of a seeded 256 nm particle and b) porous

Plasmonic nanostructures fabricated using nanosphere-lithography, soft-lithography and plasma etching

• Manuel R. Gonçalves,
• Taron Makaryan,
• Fabian Enderle,
• Stefan Wiedemann,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Othmar Marti and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 448–458, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.49

• can be utilized in experiments requiring light confinement. Keywords: nanosphere-lithography; near-field enhancement; plasma etching; soft-lithography; surface plasmons; Introduction Classical electromagnetic theories describing optical transmission through small apertures [1][2] do not take into

• , and epoxy resin cast on that sample could still not be detached. For the preparation of an anti-adhesive coating the same plasma etching system was used. By plasma polymerization of the process gas CHF3, a fluoro-carbon film was deposited on the previously prepared quartz substrate. This technique

• ], but works with a mixture of CHF3 and CF4 in a ratio of 10:1, at a working pressure of 10 mTorr. The DC bias of the etcher was set to −96 V during the process, resulting in an etching rate of approximately 4 nm/min. The same plasma etching system was used for coating of etched quartz with the anti

Preparation and characterization of supported magnetic nanoparticles prepared by reverse micelles

• Ulf Wiedwald,
• Luyang Han,
• Johannes Biskupek,
• Ute Kaiser and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 24–47, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.5

• conservation of nanoparticles by Au photoseeding is presented. Keywords: Co; CoPt; core–shell particles; FePt; magnetic anisotropy; magnetic particles; plasma etching; reverse micelles; self-assembly; Introduction Magnetic nanoparticles have been the focus of research for over 60 years [1][2]. These

• supports (section 1). The formation of metallic NPs by means of plasma etching was investigated in more detail by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy as described in section 2. Moreover, the structure of FePt alloy NPs was determined by high resolution transmission electron microscopy and their tendency for

• the XMCD and hysteresis loops were always measured in out-of-plane geometry. Moreover, our home-built plasma etching system can be attached to the high-field end-station which allows full in situ sample manipulation and characterization [32]. 3.3.1 Tracking the phase transition in FePt nanoparticles