Hybridization vs decoupling: influence of an h-BN interlayer on the physical properties of a lander-type molecule on Ni(111)

• Maximilian Schaal,
• Takumi Aihara,
• Marco Gruenewald,
• Felix Otto,
• Jari Domke,
• Roman Forker,
• Hiroyuki Yoshida and
• Torsten Fritz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1168–1177, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.101

• deposition from an effusion cell at approx. 330 °C in ultrahigh vacuum. The layer thicknesses of the DBP films were determined based on DRS [28]. We use the unit monolayer equivalent (MLE) as defined and calibrated in detail in the Supporting Information File 1, Figure S1. Initially, the DRS signal

• . Experimental methods All experiments were performed in ultrahigh vacuum with a base pressure in the range of 10−10 mbar. The adsorption of the DBP molecules was monitored by in situ DRS utilizing a 100 W halogen tungsten lamp, a blazed-grating monochromator (Acton Research SpectraPro SP2156), and a

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• surface. Experimental The experiments were performed with an STM operated in ultrahigh vacuum (10−9 Pa) and at low temperature (Pt(111) and graphene-covered Pt(111) at 5 K, Au(111) at 78 K). Pt(111) and Au(111) surfaces were cleaned by Ar+ ion bombardment and annealing. Graphene was epitaxially grown on

Monolayers of MoS₂ on Ag(111) as decoupling layers for organic molecules: resolution of electronic and vibronic states of TCNQ

• Asieh Yousofnejad,
• Gaël Reecht,
• Nils Krane,
• Christian Lotze and
• Katharina J. Franke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1062–1071, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.91

• vibronic states of the gas-phase molecule. Results and Discussion We have grown monolayer islands of MoS2 on an atomically clean Ag(111) surface, which had been exposed to sputtering–annealing cycles under ultrahigh vacuum before. The growth procedure was adapted from that of MoS2 on Au(111) [34][35], with

A few-layer graphene/chlorin e6 hybrid nanomaterial and its application in photodynamic therapy against Candida albicans

• Selene Acosta,
• Carlos Moreno-Aguilar,
• Dania Hernández-Sánchez,
• Beatriz Morales-Cruzado,
• Erick Sarmiento-Gomez,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Luis Octavio Sánchez-Vargas and
• Mildred Quintana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1054–1061, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.90

• -ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with a VERSAPROBE PHI 5000 instrument from Physical Electronics, equipped with a monochromatic Al Kα X-ray source under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. The energy resolution was 0.7 eV. For the compensation of built-up charge on the sample surface during the

Adsorption behavior of tin phthalocyanine onto the (110) face of rutile TiO₂

• Lukasz Bodek,
• Mads Engelund,
• Aleksandra Cebrat and
• Bartosz Such

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 821–828, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.67

• carried out in two ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) systems with a base pressure below 2 × 10−10 mbar. A rutile TiO2(110) crystal (produced by MaTeck GmbH) was mounted onto a sample holder allowing for the direct heating by using an AC electric current. An atomically flat and clean surface (as checked by STM) was

Epitaxial growth and superconducting properties of thin-film PdFe/VN and VN/PdFe bilayers on MgO(001) substrates

• Wael M. Mohammed,
• Igor V. Yanilkin,
• Amir I. Gumarov,
• Airat G. Kiiamov,
• Roman V. Yusupov and
• Lenar R. Tagirov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 807–813, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.65

• Abstract Single-layer vanadium nitride (VN) and bilayer Pd0.96Fe0.04/VN and VN/Pd0.92Fe0.08 thin-film heterostructures for possible spintronics applications were synthesized on (001)-oriented single-crystalline magnesium oxide (MgO) substrates utilizing a four-chamber ultrahigh vacuum deposition and

• ]. Results and Discussion Sample preparation Single-crystalline MgO(001) (henceforth designated MgO) epi-polished substrates (CRYSTAL GmbH, Germany) with a size of 10 × 5 × 0.5 mm3 were annealed at 800 °C for 5 min in the ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) chamber with a residual pressure

Quantitative determination of the interaction potential between two surfaces using frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy

• Nicholas Chan,
• Carrie Lin,
• Tevis Jacobs,
• Robert W. Carpick and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 729–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.60

• spectroscopy measurements in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) environment. The tip geometry, which is initially unknown and potentially irregularly shaped, is determined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging. It is then used to generate theoretical interaction force–displacement relations, which are

• parameters for the particular material system. Experimental details All experiments were conducted in a RHK 750 UHV-AFM system operated under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions (1 × 10−10 Torr) and at room temperature. Single-crystal diamond(100) samples (EDP Corporation) were cleaned in an ultrasonic bath

High dynamic resistance elements based on a Josephson junction array

• Konstantin Yu. Arutyunov and
• Janne S. Lehtinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 417–420, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.32

• followed by ultrahigh vacuum deposition of materials was used for the fabrication of the nanostructures. Hybrid QPSJ samples were made of Ti, Al and aluminum oxide [12]. The high-impedance JJs studied in this paper, similar to those from [12], were fabricated from superconducting thin film Al oxidized in

Implementation of data-cube pump–probe KPFM on organic solar cells

• Benjamin Grévin,
• Olivier Bardagot and
• Renaud Demadrille

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 323–337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.24

• the chosen approach for pp-KPFM are finally discussed. pp-KPFM Implementation The experiments were performed on the basis of noncontact AFM (nc-AFM) under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) with a beam deflection setup operated in frequency-modulation (FM) mode at room temperature. In the following, we only

Nanoscale spatial mapping of mechanical properties through dynamic atomic force microscopy

• Zahra Abooalizadeh,
• Leszek Josef Sudak and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1332–1347, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.132

• frequency of two FMM and CR modes on the response amplitude. Experimental All experiments were conducted in an RHK 7500 UHV-AFM system operated under ultrahigh vacuum conditions (pressure less than 5 × 10−10 Torr) and at room temperature. Atomically flat samples of HOPG were prepared by mechanically

• the force sensor were determined under ultrahigh vacuum using the beam-geometry method, involving the measurement of the frequency of the first normal oscillation mode to determine the thickness of the cantilever [26]. The normal stiffness of the cantilevers was determined to be in the range of 0.25

• . Of course the advantages of dynamic AFM come at the expense that the lateral shear force between the tip and sample cannot be eliminated, making the technique inappropriate for weakly bonded samples. On the other hand, more variations of the experimental set up are possible for AFM, such as ultrahigh

Imaging the surface potential at the steps on the rutile TiO₂(110) surface by Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Masato Miyazaki,
• Huan Fei Wen,
• Quanzhen Zhang,
• Yuuki Adachi,
• Jan Brndiar,
• Ivan Štich,
• Yan Jun Li and
• Yasuhiro Sugawara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1228–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.122

• out with a custom-built ultrahigh-vacuum noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) system operated at a temperature of 78 K with a base pressure below 4 × 10−11 mbar. The NC-AFM system was operated in the frequency-modulation mode [44] with a constant cantilever oscillation amplitude (5 Å). The

Playing with covalent triazine framework tiles for improved CO₂ adsorption properties and catalytic performance

• Giulia Tuci,
• Andree Iemhoff,
• Housseinou Ba,
• Lapo Luconi,
• Andrea Rossin,
• Vasiliki Papaefthimiou,
• Regina Palkovits,
• Jens Artz,
• Cuong Pham-Huu and
• Giuliano Giambastiani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1217–1227, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.121

• conditions. CO2 adsorption properties of CTF1–5 The wide morphological and chemical diversity of the as-synthesized CTF samples prompted us to evaluate their CO2 adsorption and separation capacities. To this aim, all materials were firstly activated under ultrahigh vacuum and CO2 isotherms were recorded at T

• ) measurements were performed in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) Thermo-VG scientific spectrometer equipped with a CLAM4 (MCD) hemispherical electron analyser. The Al Kα line (1486.6 eV) of a dual anode X-ray source was used as incident radiation. Survey and high-resolution spectra were recorded in constant pass

In situ AFM visualization of Li–O₂ battery discharge products during redox cycling in an atmospherically controlled sample cell

• Kumar Virwani,
• Younes Ansari,
• Khanh Nguyen,
• Francisco José Alía Moreno-Ortiz,
• Jangwoo Kim,
• Maxwell J. Giammona,
• Ho-Cheol Kim and
• Young-Hye La

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 930–940, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.94

• -ray photoelectron spectroscopy to study the reactions under ultrahigh vacuum as well as 500 mtorr O2 pressure. Zheng et al. [20] performed in situ scanning electron microscopy of the reaction whereby they observed the growth of toroidal lithium peroxide (Li2O2) particles along a specific direction as

Comparing a porphyrin- and a coumarin-based dye adsorbed on NiO(001)

• Sara Freund,
• Antoine Hinaut,
• Nathalie Marinakis,
• Edwin C. Constable,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Catherine E. Housecroft and
• Thilo Glatzel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 874–881, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.88

• (nc-AFM) is used at room temperature (RT) to compare the properties of the two dyes deposited on a NiO(001) single-crystal surface. Under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions, the adsorption modes of both molecules on the surface of NiO(001) are studied and their charge state upon adsorption are

Hydrophilicity and carbon chain length effects on the gas sensing properties of chemoresistive, self-assembled monolayer carbon nanotube sensors

• Juan Casanova-Cháfer,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Eduard Llobet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 565–577, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.58

• suggests the absence (or a non-detectable amount) of unbound thiol molecules (S 2p1/2 BE ≈ 165 eV), which confirms the correct formation of SAMs. The small amount of unbound thiol molecules detected by Raman spectroscopy were possibly removed under the ultrahigh vacuum needed to perform XPS, which would

Widening of the electroactivity potential range by composite formation – capacitive properties of TiO₂/BiVO₄/PEDOT:PSS electrodes in contact with an aqueous electrolyte

• Konrad Trzciński,
• Mariusz Szkoda,
• Andrzej P. Nowak,
• Marcin Łapiński and
• Anna Lisowska-Oleksiak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 483–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.49

• and 300 W. XPS measurements were performed at room temperature under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions, with pressures below 1.1 × 10−8 mbar. Data analysis was performed with the CASA XPS software package using Shirley background subtraction and a least-squares Gaussian–Lorentzian curve fitting algorithm

Apparent tunneling barrier height and local work function of atomic arrays

• Neda Noei,
• Alexander Weismann and
• Richard Berndt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3048–3052, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.283

• of a barrier height increase with decreased lateral size of the tunneling-current path is expected to be reliable. These results predict a kinetic energy contribution of the order of 1 eV for tunneling between two atomically sharp structures. Experiments were performed in an ultrahigh vacuum STM

Femtosecond laser-assisted fabrication of chalcopyrite micro-concentrator photovoltaics

• Franziska Ringleb,
• Stefan Andree,
• Berit Heidmann,
• Jörn Bonse,
• Katharina Eylers,
• Owen Ernst,
• Torsten Boeck,
• Martina Schmid and
• Jörg Krüger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3025–3038, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.281

• pressure for CISe samples from the nucleation approach and all samples from the LIFT approach, or in an ultrahigh-vacuum chamber with a directed selenium beam for CIGSe samples from the nucleation approach. In both cases, the temperature protocol comprised an annealing step at around 200–250 °C followed by

Investigation of CVD graphene as-grown on Cu foil using simultaneous scanning tunneling/atomic force microscopy

• Majid Fazeli Jadidi,
• Umut Kamber,
• Oğuzhan Gürlü and
• H. Özgür Özer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2953–2959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.274

• ]. Experimental Our setup is a commercial STM/AFM operated in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) that was modified and improved by the implementation of a Fabry–Pérot fiber interferometer in order to achieve high sensitivity in detecting lever deflection and measuring the oscillation amplitude, which in turn allows us to

In situ characterization of nanoscale contaminations adsorbed in air using atomic force microscopy

• Jesús S. Lacasa,
• Lisa Almonte and
• Jaime Colchero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2925–2935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.271

• involving surfaces a well-defined surface condition is essential. Preparing such surfaces has thus been a field of intense research over many decades. One approach is to work under ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) conditions, which has opened fascinating experimental possibilities [5]. More importantly, well-defined

Low cost tips for tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy fabricated by two-step electrochemical etching of 125 µm diameter gold wires

• Antonino Foti,
• Francesco Barreca,
• Enza Fazio,
• Cristiano D’Andrea,
• Paolo Matteini,
• Onofrio Maria Maragò and
• Pietro Giuseppe Gucciardi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2718–2729, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.254

• ] and shear-force microscopy (ShFM) [15] allow for chemical imaging of nanostructured materials, surfaces and (bio)molecular layers with a spatial resolution of 4–10 nm in ambient conditions [15][16], and can even reach atomic-level sensitivity in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) [17][18][19]. Excellent reviews

Silicene, germanene and other group IV 2D materials

• Patrick Vogt

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2665–2667, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.248

• concepts exploiting their topological properties. In recent years this search has lead to the discovery of other members of this family of 2D materials based on other group IV elements. In 2012 silicene was first synthesized under ultrahigh vacuum conditions on a silver(111) single crystal by Si molecular

• beam epitaxy (MBE) [1][2] and at around the same time on zirconium diboride thin films grown on Si(111) substrates by Si segregation through the film [3]. The synthesis of silicene further launched an intensive search for other 2D elemental materials synthesized under ultrahigh vacuum by MBE-like

Intrinsic ultrasmall nanoscale silicon turns n-/p-type with SiO₂/Si₃N₄-coating

• Dirk König,
• Daniel Hiller,
• Noël Wilck,
• Birger Berghoff,
• Merlin Müller,
• Sangeeta Thakur,
• Giovanni Di Santo,
• Luca Petaccia,
• Joachim Mayer,
• Sean Smith and
• Joachim Knoch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2255–2264, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.210

• swiftly loaded into the ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) annealing chamber. All NWell samples were contacted via a lateral metal contact frame on the front surface which was processed by photolithographical structuring, wet-chemical mesa etching and thermal evaporation of Al. The reference Si-wafer was contacted

Localized photodeposition of catalysts using nanophotonic resonances in silicon photocathodes

• Evgenia Kontoleta,
• Sven H. C. Askes,
• Lai-Hung Lai and
• Erik C. Garnett

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2097–2105, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.198

• electrolyte. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) was performed in a custom-built ultrahigh-vacuum chamber, operating at a base pressure below 5 × 10−9 mbar. A XM1200 monochromatic X-ray source (Al Kα line, Scienta Omicron) was used for X-ray excitation of the sample

Recent highlights in nanoscale and mesoscale friction

• Andrea Vanossi,
• Dirk Dietzel,
• Andre Schirmeisen,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Marcin Kisiel,
• Shigeki Kawai and
• Nicola Manini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1995–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.190

• important prerequisite of these experiments is to operate the instrument under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions, where contaminants can be avoided. In the case of Kawai et al. [58], the GNRs were grown by on-surface chemistry through evaporating a precursor of 10,10’-dibromo-9,9’-bianthryl monomers. By suitable