Relation between thickness, crystallite size and magnetoresistance of nanostructured La_1−xSr_xMn_yO_3±δ films for magnetic field sensors

• Rasuole Lukose,
• Valentina Plausinaitiene,
• Milita Vagner,
• Nerija Zurauskiene,
• Skirmantas Kersulis,
• Virgaudas Kubilius,
• Karolis Motiejuitis,
• Birute Knasiene,
• Voitech Stankevic,
• Zita Saltyte,
• Martynas Skapas,
• Algirdas Selskis and
• Evaldas Naujalis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 256–261, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.24

• ]. Transport and magnetoresistive properties In nanostructured manganite materials the difference in dimensions of crystallites and change of the relative amount of grain boundaries (GBs) and film composition significantly change the transport behaviour [17][21]. The decrease of electrical resistivity and the

Interaction of Te and Se interlayers with Ag or Au nanofilms in sandwich structures

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Marek Trzcinski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Wojciech Pacuski and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 238–246, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.22

• grain boundaries towards the surface of the metal film, Se or Te atoms can induce additional plasmonic absorption bands in the permittivity of Ag and Au. Controlling this process could allow for engineering of the optical parameters of noble metals as well as enhanced nonlinear effects [33]. Moreover

• interface, accelerate it or inhibit it. This is because of the change in the entropic contribution (ΔS) to the Gibbs free energy (ΔG = ΔH − TΔS, where T stands for temperature) of segregation. Voids at the intersection of multiple grain boundaries have a greater number of both substitutional and

• Te atoms no longer reside only in the Ag grain boundaries in the form of solute solution, but possibly also in the Ag grains, forming a nano-alloy. Moreover, after four weeks, the value of the loss function at the maximum is much lower. This implies that during the additional two weeks more Te atoms

Uniform Sb₂S₃ optical coatings by chemical spray method

• Jako S. Eensalu,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Erki Kärber,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Arvo Mere and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 198–210, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.18

• conversion efficiency of all solar absorber materials because decreasing the amount of grain boundaries likely increases charge carrier mobility [26]. The crystallite sizes of as-deposited and thermally treated Sb2S3 layers are presented in Table 2. The effect of the deposition temperature is observed in Sb

• Information File 1, Figure S2A,B, Figure S3A,B; 6-200-As-dep., Figure 3A,B; 6-210-As-dep., Figure 3C,D) cover the substrate almost entirely. Grain boundaries and larger clusters of grains have formed in layers deposited from Sb/S 1:6 solutions for 40 minutes at 210 °C (6-210-As-dep., Figure 3C,D, Figure S5C,D

• large islands to minimize Sb2S3–air interfacial free surface energy (2), and form grain boundaries during crystallization in vacuum or inert environment (3). B – Sb2S3 crystallizes into separate grains if either the deposition temperature, the deposition time or the excess of TU in Sb/S precursor molar

Graphene-enhanced metal oxide gas sensors at room temperature: a review

• Dongjin Sun,
• Yifan Luo,
• Marc Debliquy and
• Chao Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2832–2844, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.264

• and potential barriers in the composites due to the heterojunctions, one at the α-Fe2O3 grain boundaries and another at the interfaces of α-Fe2O3 and rGO. It appeared clear that O2 adsorption on the α-Fe2O3 grain boundaries modified the width of the α-Fe2O3 depletion layer, which conversely altered

Controlling surface morphology and sensitivity of granular and porous silver films for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, SERS

• Sherif Okeil and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2813–2831, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.263

• oxidized silver film was performed with a hydrogen plasma at a power of 200 W and a chamber pressure of 0.38 mbar for 20 min in order to ensure complete reduction of the silver oxide film. Oxidation of sputtered silver films with oxygen plasma yields a polycrystalline silver oxide film with distinct grain

• boundaries (Figure 6a). After reduction of the silver oxide film to silver a highly porous structure is formed (Figure 6b). At the same time the drastic increase in film thickness compared to the as-sputtered silver film is observed (Figure 6c). The measured film thickness from the cross-sectional SEM for

Optimization of Mo/Cr bilayer back contacts for thin-film solar cells

• Nima Khoshsirat,
• Fawad Ali,
• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• Mojtaba Amjadipour,
• Hongxia Wang,
• Mahnaz Shafiei and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2700–2707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.252

• more dense grains as compared with the films deposited at higher pressure and lower power. This results in less grain boundaries and consequently higher carrier mobility and conductivity. The SEM images also show more uniform surfaces over the film area for the samples deposited at 3 mTorr compared

Size-selected Fe₃O₄–Au hybrid nanoparticles for improved magnetism-based theranostics

• Maria V. Efremova,
• Yulia A. Nalench,
• Eirini Myrovali,
• Anastasiia S. Garanina,
• Ivan S. Grebennikov,
• Polina K. Gifer,
• Maxim A. Abakumov,
• Marina Spasova,
• Makis Angelakeris,
• Alexander G. Savchenko,
• Michael Farle,
• Natalia L. Klyachko,
• Alexander G. Majouga and
• Ulf Wiedwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2684–2699, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.251

• as partial oxidation to γ-Fe2O3, e.g., at the grain boundaries. The decrease of MS for small particles has been ascribed to these features [40][41][42] and considering the bulk MS values at 5 K (96.4 A·m2·kg−1 for magnetite) and 300 K (92.0 A·m2·kg−1 for magnetite and 76.0 A·m2·kg−1 for maghemite

High-throughput micro-nanostructuring by microdroplet inkjet printing

• Hendrikje R. Neumann and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2372–2380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.222

• situated on the grain boundaries. Droplet size is a function of surface roughness Figure 4 presents the diameter distribution of micelle solution droplets for each sample. The droplets on poly-Si have a comparable size with a tight variation range of only about 5 µm. The distribution is symmetric, whereby

Lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics

• Oleksandr Stroyuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2209–2235, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.207

• cations [126]. The presence of 2D HP favors a more homogeneous growth of FASnI3 crystals, resulting in a reduced number of grain boundaries and the suppression of the formation of Sn4+. The high quality of such FASnI3 films was evidenced by a strongly reduced background carrier density and a longer charge

Electromigrated electrical optical antennas for transducing electrons and photons at the nanoscale

• Arindam Dasgupta,
• Mickaël Buret,
• Nicolas Cazier,
• Marie-Maxime Mennemanteuil,
• Reinaldo Chacon,
• Kamal Hammani,
• Jean-Claude Weeber,
• Juan Arocas,
• Laurent Markey,
• Gérard Colas des Francs,
• Alexander Uskov,
• Igor Smetanin and
• Alexandre Bouhelier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1964–1976, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.187

• source electrode because charge carriers here first collide with grain boundaries to initiate atom diffusion as it can be seen by number of voids present in this electrode (Figure 2c). Electrical characterization The electrical characterization of the tunneling feedgap forming the active area of the

• -color scanning electron micrograph of the device after electromigration. The tunneling junction forms on the source electrode. The zone corresponding to the constriction has been annealed by Joule dissipation during the process, reducing the number of grain boundaries available to trigger

Synthesis of carbon nanowalls from a single-source metal-organic precursor

• André Giese,
• Sebastian Schipporeit,
• Volker Buck and
• Nicolas Wöhrl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1895–1905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.181

• layer on the substrate, the vertical growth originates at cracks that occur at grain boundaries of the graphene that are rolling up [21]. All these works show that the substrate material can have a significant influence on the formation of the CNWs. Malesevic et al. [22] took a similar approach also

• described before that defects in initial graphene and graphite layers can lead to grain boundaries and defects that fold up and can be seen as additional nucleation sites for the growth of CNWs [21]. This model of increasing defects in the CNWs is also backed by Raman spectroscopy measurements as shown

• ratio) is higher for shorter mean wall lengths. A high intensity of the D-peak can be interpreted as high defect density in the carbon material. Since shorter walls mean more edges and smaller graphitic crystals, the defect density is higher with more carbon atoms at grain boundaries. Furthermore, the

Synthesis of hafnium nanoparticles and hafnium nanoparticle films by gas condensation and energetic deposition

• Irini Michelakaki,
• Nikos Boukos,
• Dimitrios A. Dragatogiannis,
• Spyros Stathopoulos,
• Costas A. Charitidis and
• Dimitris Tsoukalas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1868–1880, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.179

• . Furthermore, when the grain size is reduced to a few nanometers the number of atoms located in the grain boundaries becomes comparable with the number of atom forming the nanocrystal [60][61]. Then the X-ray pattern is a superposition of diffractions from the crystal grains and scattering from grain

• boundaries, where a broad spectrum of interatomic distances exist. The resulting X-ray diffraction pattern appears very similar to that of an amorphous material. Additionally, from the X-ray patterns, it is observed that the relative intensity of the peaks HfO2 and Hf IHfO2/IHf decreases with increasing the

Direct AFM-based nanoscale mapping and tomography of open-circuit voltages for photovoltaics

• Katherine Atamanuk,
• Justin Luria and
• Bryan D. Huey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1802–1808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.171

• during in situ illumination reveal local to mesoscale contributions to PV performance based on the order of magnitude variations in photovoltaic properties with distinct grains, at grain boundaries, and for sub-granular planar defects. Keywords: cadmium telluride (CdTe); photo-conductive AFM (pcAFM); PV

• grains present a consistent ISC*, which varies up to three orders of magnitude for adjacent grains (note the log scale). VOC*, on the other hand, is less uniform within a single grain, appearing to vary most strongly at some grain boundaries as well as many seemingly linear features. This type of instant

• polycrystalline film is relatively rough when considered at the nanometer scale, revealing grains, facets, and grain boundaries with topographic protrusions and depressions as great as ±150 nm. Surface-potential studies of a range of photovoltaics have identified correlations between such features and their

Multimodal noncontact atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations of organolead tribromide perovskite single crystals

• Yann Almadori,
• David Moerman,
• Jaume Llacer Martinez,
• Philippe Leclère and
• Benjamin Grévin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1695–1704, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.161

• conversion efficiencies exceeding 20% and several kinds of optoelectronic devices, including efficient light-emitting diodes [3], laser devices [4] and high-gain photodetectors [5]. Recently, Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) has been used to investigate the impact of grain boundaries (GBs) on the

• halide perovskite thin films remains a difficult task. Over the last few years single crystals [11][12] have constituted an interesting alternative for basic research on hybrid perovskites. Thanks to the absence of grain boundaries (and noncrystalline domains) they can be advantageously used to probe the

Friction force microscopy of tribochemistry and interfacial ageing for the SiO_x/Si/Au system

• Christiane Petzold,
• Marcus Koch and
• Roland Bennewitz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1647–1658, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.157

• slide–hold–slide experiments on the time scale of seconds, similar to the development of grain boundaries in the fusion of gold nanoparticles [16]. In our experiments, the holding time before sliding was varied between 252 μs (v = 3.1 μm·s−1) and 100 s. As our system was drifting by only one atomic

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

• utilization. The latter could be representative of the known fact that lithium shows a strong tendency to be localized and often is trapped at grain boundaries [13]. However, while C-AFM proves to be very useful to sense the electrical properties of the cathode materials, including the areal distribution and

• of a potential ion-modulated C-AFM measurement. This can be particularly useful for fundamental studies on the role of materials, grain boundaries and interfaces that provide a low bias induced response. It is important to consider the formation of a thin local oxidized interface at the tip–sample

Correlative electrochemical strain and scanning electron microscopy for local characterization of the solid state electrolyte Li_1.3Al_0.3Ti_1.7(PO₄)₃

• Nino Schön,
• Deniz Cihan Gunduz,
• Shicheng Yu,
• Hermann Tempel,
• Roland Schierholz and
• Florian Hausen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1564–1572, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.148

• at identical regions to identify microstructural components such as an AlPO4 secondary phase. We found significantly lower Li-ion mobility in the secondary phase areas as well as at grain boundaries. Additionally, various aspects of signal formation obtained from ESM for solid state electrolytes are

• grain boundaries with an overall conductivity of 0.2 mS cm−1 [11] and has therefore attracted much research within the last decade [12][13][14][15]. In classical electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), the ionic conductivity is measured through the entire sample and over the full electrode contact

• surface features as observed by SEM, providing evidence that both methods can be applied complementary. The same pores as those observed via SEM can be found in the AFM topography image and the topography reveals some preferential etching at the grain boundaries and interfaces. Differentiation between the

Review on nanoparticles and nanostructured materials: history, sources, toxicity and regulations

• Jaison Jeevanandam,
• Ahmed Barhoum,
• Yen S. Chan,
• Alain Dufresne and
• Michael K. Danquah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1050–1074, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.98

• movement along the x–y-axis, and x, y, z-axis respectively. The ability to predict the properties of NMs determines the classification value of the NMs. The properties of NMs strongly depend on the grain boundaries, as mentioned in the “grain boundary engineering” concept in Gleiter's classification

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

• material ρθ=0° and a film thickness tθ=0° (measured parallel to the substrate normal) is forming. This density ρθ=0° does not necessarily equal the bulk density of the material, since the film can contain inner voids, grain boundaries, etc. [25]. Tilting the substrate to an oblique angle θ leads to an

Effect of annealing treatments on CeO₂ grown on TiN and Si substrates by atomic layer deposition

• Silvia Vangelista,
• Rossella Piagge,
• Satu Ek and
• Alessio Lamperti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 890–899, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.83

• the preferential orientation of ceria [8][9][10][11]. Further, the specific conditions of the thermal treatment (i.e., high or low temperature in reactive (O2) or inert (N2) atmosphere) can influence the formation of defects in the crystalline structure, such as grain boundaries, the crystallite

Blister formation during graphite surface oxidation by Hummers’ method

• Olga V. Sinitsyna,
• Georgy B. Meshkov,
• Anastasija V. Grigorieva,
• Alexander A. Antonov,
• Inna G. Grigorieva and
• Igor V. Yaminsky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 407–414, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.40

• important role of the basal-plane surface in the transport of reagents inside the crystals. Eklund et al. [7] noted that sulfuric acid intercalates highly oriented pyrolythic graphite (HOPG) through the basal-plane surface, where the penetration sites are probably grain boundaries, microcracks and atomic

• the treatment. Grain boundaries within the ordered regions have a well-organized structure [19], and, in our assumption, they do not permit the diffusion of the reagents inside the material. Line-shaped blisters were found along the grain boundaries (Figure S3, Supporting Information File 1) after the

Review: Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based nanoelectromechanical switches – materials solutions and operational conditions

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Jelena Kosmaca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Jana Andzane and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 271–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.29

• explained as follows: currently, large area graphene can be prepared by the CVD technique; synthesized by this method, graphene has a polycrystalline nature. Processes occurring at the grain boundaries of polycrystalline graphene as, for example, charge carrier scattering and mechanical stress, result in

BN/Ag hybrid nanomaterials with petal-like surfaces as catalysts and antibacterial agents

• Konstantin L. Firestein,
• Denis V. Leybo,
• Alexander E. Steinman,
• Andrey M. Kovalskii,
• Andrei T. Matveev,
• Anton M. Manakhov,
• Irina V. Sukhorukova,
• Pavel V. Slukin,
• Nadezda K. Fursova,
• Sergey G. Ignatov,
• Dmitri V. Golberg and
• Dmitry V. Shtansky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 250–261, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.27

• with a size smaller than 6–9 nm consisted of small crystallites with coherent (twinned) or semi-coherent grain boundaries. The interplanar distances estimated from the fast Fourier transform (FFT) patterns (Figure 2c and 2f, insets) were d = 0.231 nm and d = 0.205 nm. These distances well correspond

Comparative study of post-growth annealing of Cu(hfac)₂, Co₂(CO)₈ and Me₂Au(acac) metal precursors deposited by FEBID

• Marcos V. Puydinger dos Santos,
• Aleksandra Szkudlarek,
• Artur Rydosz,
• Carlos Guerra-Nuñez,
• Fanny Béron,
• Kleber R. Pirota,
• Stanislav Moshkalev,
• José Alexandre Diniz and
• Ivo Utke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 91–101, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.11

• . In particular, the size of the metal agglomerates of all deposits was estimated from high-magnification SEM images (see Figure 1), using ImageJ software applying a fast Fourier transform (FFT) bandpass filter to enhance grain boundaries and a contrast-threshold algorithm to calculate the agglomerate

Growth model and structure evolution of Ag layers deposited on Ge films

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Jakub Kierdaszuk and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 66–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.9

• ongoing recrystallization. The Raman spectra of the Ge wetted Ag films were measured immediately after deposition and ten days later and demonstrated that the Ge atoms at the Ag grain boundaries form clusters of a few atoms where the Ge–Ge bonds are still present. Keywords: germanium; segregation; self

• atoms present in the Ag grain boundaries are individual atoms or small clusters, Raman spectra of Ge wetted, 20 nm thick Ag layers were recorded immediately after deposition as well as 10 days later. To avoid corrosion, all samples were capped with a 3 nm thick LiF overlayer, except the ones measured

• surface. With the increased number of grains, the surface of the grain boundaries and volume of voids also increases. As hypothesized in [4], Ge atoms located in the silver grain boundaries or in the voids have lower free enthalpy than Ge atoms at the SiO2/Ag interface. The increased number of grain