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

• . Depth profiling was conducted on a 1 × 1 mm2 area with a Ar+ ion beam energy of 10 keV and large cluster size (n = 2000). Results and Discussion Adhesion The first characterization step was the adhesion test performed on Mo layers after deposition on uncoated and Cr-coated glass substrates. All samples

Friction reduction through biologically inspired scale-like laser surface textures

• Johannes Schneider,
• Vergil Djamiykov and
• Christian Greiner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2561–2572, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.238

• pearlitic steel with round dimples, no microstructural changes within the 100Cr6 samples in the heat affected zone were expected [15]. Figure S2, Supporting Information File 1 shows a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of a cross-section through a laser-textured sample prepared by focused ion beam

• microscopy of the laser surface textured samples was performed with a FEI Helios 650 (Hillsborough, USA) scanning electron/focused ion beam microscope used in electron beam mode only. Tribological characterization The tribological pin-on-disc tests for the experiments against different counter body materials

• . Supporting Information Figure S1: Optical micrograph of a scale-like surface texture after 1000 m of dry sliding against sapphire. Figure S2: Scanning electron microscopy image of a focused ion beam cross-section of a laser-textured sample. Figure S3: Optical micrograph of a PEEK disc after a dry sliding

High-temperature magnetism and microstructure of a semiconducting ferromagnetic (GaSb)_1−x(MnSb)_x alloy

• Leonid N. Oveshnikov,
• Elena I. Nekhaeva,
• Alexey V. Kochura,
• Alexander B. Davydov,
• Mikhail A. Shakhov,
• Sergey F. Marenkin,
• Oleg A. Novodvorskii,
• Alexander P. Kuzmenko,
• Alexander L. Vasiliev,
• Boris A. Aronzon and
• Erkki Lahderanta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2457–2465, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.230

• samples demonstrated linear current–voltage characteristics down to sub-helium temperatures while sustaining high values of conductivity. The cross-section specimens for S/TEM studies were prepared by focus ion beam (FIB) milling in a Helios (FEI, US) SEM/FIB dual-beam system equipped with C and Pt gas

Thickness-dependent photoelectrochemical properties of a semitransparent Co₃O₄ photocathode

• Malkeshkumar Patel and
• Joondong Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2432–2442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.228

• focused ion beam system (FIB, FEI, Quanta 3D FEG). The elemental compositions in the cross sections of the Co3O4 layers in the working electrode were determined as line profiles by an energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) attachment to the FETEM. Thickness and average surface roughness of the deposited

Hydrothermal-derived carbon as a stabilizing matrix for improved cycling performance of silicon-based anodes for lithium-ion full cells

• Mirco Ruttert,
• Florian Holtstiege,
• Jessica Hüsker,
• Markus Börner,
• Martin Winter and
• Tobias Placke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2381–2395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.223

• -sections were prepared by a focused ion beam (FIB) milling process using gallium ions extracted from a high brightness liquid metal ion source. Nitrogen adsorption experiments were performed on a 3Flex Physisorption device (Micromeritics GmbH) at the temperature of liquid nitrogen (−196 °C). Before the

Directional light beams by design from electrically driven elliptical slit antennas

• Shuiyan Cao,
• Eric Le Moal,
• Quanbo Jiang,
• Aurélien Drezet,
• Serge Huant,
• Jean-Paul Hugonin,
• Gérald Dujardin and
• Elizabeth Boer-Duchemin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2361–2371, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.221

• milled in the gold film using a focused ion beam (FIB) at the NanoFab facility (Institut Néel, Grenoble, France). A scanning electron microscopy image of an elliptical slit is shown in Supporting Information File 1. Schematics of the experiment. A single (a) circular or (b) elliptical slit etched in a

Two-dimensional photonic crystals increasing vertical light emission from Si nanocrystal-rich thin layers

• Lukáš Ondič,
• Marian Varga,
• Ivan Pelant,
• Alexander Kromka,
• Karel Hruška and
• Robert G. Elliman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2287–2296, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.213

• with etching [14] or focused ion beam milling [15] are used to prepare photonic structures with well-defined dimensions on small areas. These approaches are therefore suitable for laboratory testings but not for practice. This issue was recently solved by developing large-scale production techniques

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

• SiO2-layer to facilitate the preparation of cross sections by the focused ion beam technique using a FEI Strata FIB 205 workstation. Some samples were further thinned by means of a Fischione NanoMill. The TEM analysis of the cross sections was performed on a FEI Tecnai F20 TEM operated at 200 kV at the

High-throughput synthesis of modified Fresnel zone plate arrays via ion beam lithography

• Kahraman Keskinbora,
• Umut Tunca Sanli,
• Margarita Baluktsian,
• Corinne Grévent,
• Markus Weigand and
• Gisela Schütz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2049–2056, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.194

• -resolution imaging and lithography at short wavelengths. Their fabrication requires nano-machining capabilities with exceptional precision and strict tolerances such as those enabled by modern lithography methods. In particular, ion beam lithography (IBL) is a noteworthy method thanks to its robust direct

• ) radiation; focused ion beam (FIB); Fresnel zone plate; ion beam lithography (IBL); nanopatterning; soft X-rays; Introduction Requirements for focusing elements that work at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray (SXR) energies are very different from those of the more familiar ultraviolet, visible or

• is direct-write ion beam lithography (IBL) and machining [32][33][34]. A well-known advantage of IBL is the ease of rapid prototyping of small-scale microfluidic, optical or electronic nanodevices. IBL has recently been applied for fabricating high-resolution functional FZPs [28][35][36] and for the

Defect formation in multiwalled carbon nanotubes under low-energy He and Ne ion irradiation

• Santhana Eswara,
• Jean-Nicolas Audinot,
• Brahime El Adib,
• Maël Guennou,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1951–1963, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.186

• -resolution imaging tool [32][33]. A He+ or Ne+ ion beam can be used to irradiated the samples with an impact energy in the range of 5 to 30 keV, either for imaging or nano-machining [34][35], or for doing both simultaneously [33]. For instance, the HIM has already been used for the imaging of graphene flakes

• -beam etching and takes changes in ion current during long-time irradiation into account. The scan mode with spot overlap was used for ion beam positioning, leading to a homogeneous irradiation of the sample. The experimental conditions are given in Table 2. Raman spectra Raman scattering measurements

• total irradiation fluences of the MWCNT samples ranged from 1014 to 1018 ions/cm2. Beam position and primary ion fluence were controlled by the Fibics Nanopatterning and Visualisation Engine (NPVE) (http://www.fibics.com/). The FIBICS nano-patterning software allows for high-performance milling and ion

Know your full potential: Quantitative Kelvin probe force microscopy on nanoscale electrical devices

• Amelie Axt,
• Ilka M. Hermes,
• Victor W. Bergmann,
• Niklas Tausendpfund and
• Stefan A. L. Weber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1809–1819, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.172

• stronger lateral averaging of the AM-KPFM in lift mode and the presence of a stray electric field. Such a field could originate from gallium ions deposited into the glass substrate during the focused ion beam polishing of the cross section. Our general recommendation for quantitative device measurements is

• compact MAPI capping layer, the hole transport material spiro-OMETAD and a gold electrode. Prior to the measurement the cross section of the solar cell was polished with a focused ion beam (FIB) to minimize topographic crosstalk. The CPD line profiles in a) were extracted from double side band frequency

Magnetic properties of Fe₃O₄ antidot arrays synthesized by AFIR: atomic layer deposition, focused ion beam and thermal reduction

• Juan L. Palma,
• Alejandro Pereira,
• Raquel Álvaro,
• José Miguel García-Martín and
• Juan Escrig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1728–1734, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.164

• .9.164 Abstract Magnetic films of magnetite (Fe3O4) with controlled defects, so-called antidot arrays, were synthesized by a new technique called AFIR. AFIR consists of the deposition of a thin film by atomic layer deposition, the generation of square and hexagonal arrays of holes using focused ion beam

• variable lattice parameters. Keywords: antidot arrays; atomic layer deposition; focused ion beam; magnetic properties; thermal reduction; Introduction Magnetic antidots, magnetic thin films with periodic arrays of holes, are currently an important topic for both the fundamental understanding of low

• [23] and colloidal [24] lithography, porous anodic alumina [25][26], block copolymer templates [27], nanochannel glass [28] and focused ion beam (FIB) patterning [29][30]. Recently, we have proposed the fabrication of disordered antidot arrays through the thermal reduction of thin films synthesized by

Toward the use of CVD-grown MoS₂ nanosheets as field-emission source

• Geetanjali Deokar,
• Nitul S. Rajput,
• Junjie Li,
• Francis Leonard Deepak,
• Wei Ou-Yang,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Jean-Francois Colomer and
• Mustapha Jouiad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1686–1694, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.160

• sulfurized Mo films on SiO2/Si substrates was characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) combined with a Helios FEITM NanoLab 650 focused ion beam (FIB) system. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) lamella were prepared using the standard FIB lift-out technique described in an

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

• tip height. One Au/Si tip apex was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM; JEM-2100(HR) LaB6, JEOL GmbH, Eching, Germany, 200 kV acceleration voltage) after activation on Au(111) and sliding experiments. The tip was cut using a focused ion beam (Versa3D; FEI, Eindhoven, Netherlands) to a

• thickness that allowed for TEM analysis. The FIB lamella was produced by first depositing a layer of platinum, starting with an electron beam at 2 kV and subsequently using the Ga ion beam at 30 kV until the platinum layer had reached a thickness of about 2.5 µm. The lamella was cut with the Ga ion beam at

• 30 kV and 7 nA. Finally, the lamella was cleaned from both sides at 2 kV and 0.26 nA using the Ga ion beam. Results Atomic-scale friction on oxidized Si(100) and on Au(111) Sliding an intact Au/Si tip against a non-reactive surface (Au(111) or oxidized Si(100)) typically resulted in friction values

Interaction-tailored organization of large-area colloidal assemblies

• Silvia Rizzato,
• Elisabetta Primiceri,
• Anna Grazia Monteduro,
• Adriano Colombelli,
• Angelo Leo,
• Maria Grazia Manera,
• Roberto Rella and
• Giuseppe Maruccio

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1582–1593, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.150

• ; this is why a proper fabrication tool, able to guarantee good flexibility, is required to meet research goals. Typically, the fabrication of nanostructured systems involves techniques such as electron beam and focused ion beam lithography in order to realize arrays of nanoscale features with precise

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

• detail, a different preparation method has been employed to obtain a significantly smoother LATP surface. Figure 4 shows an SEM picture of the area on LATP sintered at 1000 °C that was polished by means of a focused ion beam (FIB). Please note that the color contrast is inverted in this case as the SEM

• in Figure 4b. AFM topography as well as ESM amplitude signal is shown in Figure 4c,d, respectively. In comparison with hand polished samples (see Figure 2b,d) a smoother surface finish was obtained. Nevertheless, the Ga-ion beam produced some trenches due to the curtaining effect. The hand-polished

• individual grains can hardly be seen in the topography image (Figure 4c), using the same color scale as in Figure 2. This means, preparation with the ion beam almost parallel to the surface introduces less preferential etching of the grain boundaries. However, the ESM amplitude signal, as shown in Figure 4d

Absence of free carriers in silicon nanocrystals grown from phosphorus- and boron-doped silicon-rich oxide and oxynitride

• Daniel Hiller,
• Julian López-Vidrier,
• Keita Nomoto,
• Michael Wahl,
• Wolfgang Bock,
• Tomáš Chlouba,
• František Trojánek,
• Sebastian Gutsch,
• Margit Zacharias,
• Dirk König,
• Petr Malý and
• Michael Kopnarski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1501–1511, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.141

• (≈40 K) and a chamber pressure of 10−12–10−11 Torr. The atom detection efficiency is 57%. For data reconstruction IVAS™ software (version 3.6.6) was used. APT specimen (needle-shaped tips attached onto the apex of a Mo support grid) were structured using an Auriga (Zeiss) focused ion beam scanning

Cathodoluminescence as a probe of the optical properties of resonant apertures in a metallic film

• Kalpana Singh,
• Evgeniy Panchenko,
• Babak Nasr,
• Amelia Liu,
• Lukas Wesemann,
• Timothy J. Davis and
• Ann Roberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1491–1500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.140

• writing was performed on a 100 nm thick Au film on a borosilicate glass substrate. Initial exposures indicated a dose of 15 nC/cm2 as the optimal initial setting for the ion beam with a 1 µs dwell time and 50% beam overlap. The optimised ion beam current selected for milling was 1.5–2.4 pA, producing the

A novel copper precursor for electron beam induced deposition

• Caspar Haverkamp,
• George Sarau,
• Mikhail N. Polyakov,
• Ivo Utke,
• Marcos V. Puydinger dos Santos,
• Silke Christiansen and
• Katja Höflich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1220–1227, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.113

• . Cross-sectional samples from planar deposits for imaging by TEM were prepared by a focused ion beam (FIB) lift-out technique in a Zeiss Crossbeam 340 KMAT. TEM on the cross-sections was performed on a JEOL JEM2200fs CM12. SAED pattern indexing was carried out using CSpot software (CrystOrient

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

• [25]. Focused ion beam has been used to prepare lamellae of selected samples for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis (cross and plan view, Fei Tecnai G2) in bright or dark field at a voltage of 200 kV. Plan view images are treated with free software to obtain the crystallite size

• distribution as in [26]. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) investigation of the compositional depth profile of the CeO2/TiN/Si and CeO2/Si structures has been performed by means of a Cs+ ion beam (energy of 0.5 keV, ion current 38.0 nA) sputtering a 200 μm × 200 μm area, and a Ga+ ion

• beam (25 keV, 2.6 pA) for analysis over a 50 μm × 50 μm area centered on the sputtered crater and therein collecting secondary negative ions [27]. The recorded intensities of the secondary ions were normalized to the intensity of 30Si in bulk Si. The chemical state of the annealed CeO2 films [28] was

Single-step process to improve the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube yarn

• Maria Cecilia Evora,
• Xinyi Lu,
• Nitilaksha Hiremath,
• Nam-Goo Kang,
• Kunlun Hong,
• Roberto Uribe,
• Gajanan Bhat and
• Jimmy Mays

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 545–554, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.52

• ). CNT yarn is cylindrical and the diameter ranges between 50 a 60 µm. The tensile testing of the yarn samples were kept constant in terms of length of 25.4 mm. The morphology of CNT yarns was investigated using a Zeiss Auriga dual beam focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) in

• which electron and ion beam can be used simultaneously. The FIB is generated from a gallium liquid metal ion source with resolution of 7 nm at 30 keV acceleration voltages. The e-beam is generated from field emission gun electron source with high resolution SEM 1 nm at 15 keV and 1.9 nm at 1 keV

Al₂O₃/TiO₂ inverse opals from electrosprayed self-assembled templates

• Arnau Coll,
• Sandra Bermejo,
• David Hernández and
• Luís Castañer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 216–223, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.23

• layers of 360 nm polystyrene nanoparticles can be seen. The layer is almost free of defects besides some missing beads that can be identified in the top surface. A focused ion beam (FIB) drill in two orthogonal vertical planes confirms that the order is fully three-dimensional. The total thickness of the

Bombyx mori silk/titania/gold hybrid materials for photocatalytic water splitting: combining renewable raw materials with clean fuels

• Stefanie Krüger,
• Michael Schwarze,
• Otto Baumann,
• Christina Günter,
• Michael Bruns,
• Christian Kübel,
• Dorothée Vinga Szabó,
• Rafael Meinusch,
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 187–204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.21

• obtained using a raster scanned Ar+ ion beam at 0.5–3.0 keV and 30° angle of incidence. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) was performed on a PANalytical Empyrean Diffractometer in a 2θ range of 4–90°. X-ray wavelength was 1.5408 Å (Cu Kα) and step size was 0.0131°. Data and particle size analysis via Scherrer

Response under low-energy electron irradiation of a thin film of a potential copper precursor for focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID)

• Leo Sala,
• Iwona B. Szymańska,
• Céline Dablemont,
• Anne Lafosse and
• Lionel Amiaud

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 57–65, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.8

• obtained with non-standard processes, for example with FEBID in aqueous solution [3] or with ion beam assisted deposition with plasma treatments [4]. For purity improvement of copper deposits, an alternative is the use of precursors with multiple copper ions. This class of metallic complex precursors has

Nematic liquid crystal alignment on subwavelength metal gratings

• Irina V. Kasyanova,
• Artur R. Geivandov,
• Vladimir V. Artemov,
• Maxim V. Gorkunov and
• Serguei P. Palto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 42–47, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.6

• , which involves the ion-beam milling technique and assembly of the experimental liquid crystal cell. The second section is dedicated to data analysis, where besides polarized microscope observations, we apply the Fourier transform technique to the transmittance spectra in order to extract the effective

• gratings (Figure 1) are produced by ion-beam milling of the films using an FEI Scios dual beam electron-ion microscope (accelerating voltage 30 kV, ion beam current 0.1–0.3 nA). We have produced a series of gratings on the same substrate in order to be able to observe the influence on LC alignment of such