Fabrication of black-gold coatings by glancing angle deposition with sputtering

• Alan Vitrey,
• Rafael Alvarez,
• Alberto Palmero,
• María Ujué González and
• José Miguel García-Martín

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 434–439, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.46

• 10.3762/bjnano.8.46 Abstract The fabrication of black-gold coatings using sputtering is reported here. Glancing angle deposition with a rotating substrate is needed to obtain vertical nanostructures. Enhanced light absorption is obtained in the samples prepared in the ballistic regime with high tilt

• angles. Under these conditions the diameter distribution of the nanostructures is centered at about 60 nm and the standard deviation is large enough to obtain black-metal behavior in the visible range. Keywords: black coatings; black metals; glancing angle deposition; light absorption; sputtering

• glancing angle deposition with substrate rotation. The coatings are made of columnar nanostructures that are produced due to shadowing effects in the ballistic regime of sputtering. In order to obtain enhanced light absorption in the visible range, high tilt angle is needed, which gives rise to a diameter

Photocatalysis applications of some hybrid polymeric composites incorporating TiO₂ nanoparticles and their combinations with SiO₂/Fe₂O₃

• Andreea Laura Chibac,
• Tinca Buruiana,
• Violeta Melinte and
• Emil C. Buruiana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 272–286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.30

• . The presence of Fe2O3 NPs extended the light absorption of TiO2 into the visible range, a feature that recommends their use in water purification under sunlight. Experimental Materials Titanium(IV) isopropoxide (TTIP), glacial acetic acid, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), iron(II) chloride

Grazing-incidence optical magnetic recording with super-resolution

• Gunther Scheunert,
• Sidney. R. Cohen,
• René Kullock,
• Ryan McCarron,
• Katya Rechev,
• Ifat Kaplan-Ashiri,
• Ora Bitton,
• Paul Dawson,
• Bert Hecht and
• Dan Oron

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 28–37, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.4

• by a factor of 10, which enables the use of low-power laser sources and pulses shorter than 20 ns, comparable to industry HAMR benchmarks [21]. Power requirements are further eased by using FePt recording media [24], designed for improved laser light absorption and lower operating temperatures

Role of RGO support and irradiation source on the photocatalytic activity of CdS–ZnO semiconductor nanostructures

• Suneel Kumar,
• Rahul Sharma,
• Vipul Sharma,
• Gurunarayanan Harith,
• Vaidyanathan Sivakumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1684–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.161

• ]. As-prepared CdS NP have an absorption edge around 580 nm, which corresponds to a band gap value of about 2.12 eV in agreement with the value reported for CdS [23]. Bare GO also shows the excellent light absorption in the range of 200–800 nm. Various studies have confirmed that the band gap of GO

• GO affects the optical properties of the ternary nanocomposite and is responsible for the red shift in the absorption spectrum, which ultimately results in narrowing of the band gap, which not only enhances light absorption in the visible light region, but also facilities efficient mobility of the

Nanostructured germanium deposited on heated substrates with enhanced photoelectric properties

• Ionel Stavarache,
• Valentin Adrian Maraloiu,
• Petronela Prepelita and
• Gheorghe Iordache

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1492–1500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.142

• [12], the amorphous or crystalline state of the nanostructure [13], the shape of the nanostructure and whether or not it is layered [14]. Taking into account the influence of all these factors, the conduction or light absorption mechanism in the nanostructures appear to be quite complex, and it cannot

Photothermal effect of gold nanostar patterns inkjet-printed on coated paper substrates with different permeability

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Anni Määttänen,
• Petri Ihalainen,
• Maddalena Collini,
• Elisa Cabrini,
• Giacomo Dacarro,
• Piersandro Pallavicini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1480–1485, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.140

• substrates and for a wide range of drop density. After an initial linear temperature increase, a saturation effect sets in at about Iexc = 0.5 W/cm2. This behaviour can be rationalized in terms of a model that accounts for the localized light absorption by the printed pattern, its energy conversion to heat

High performance Ce-doped ZnO nanorods for sunlight-driven photocatalysis

• Bilel Chouchene,
• Tahar Ben Chaabane,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Kevin Mozet,
• Ghouti Medjahdi and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1338–1349, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.125

• substantially enhanced light absorption in the visible region, to the high surface area of ZnO:Ce rods and to the effective electron–hole pair separation originating from Ce doping. The influence of various experimental parameters like the pH, the presence of salts and of organic compounds was investigated and

Understanding interferometry for micro-cantilever displacement detection

• Alexander von Schmidsfeld,
• Tobias Nörenberg,
• Matthias Temmen and
• Michael Reichling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 841–851, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.76

• . Because light absorption at the fiber end can also be neglected, it is straightforward to determine floss = 0.44 ± 0.02 for the experiments reported here. The high loss is presumably occurring in the tightly wound reserve coil inside the vacuum, containing about 3 m of fiber for cleaving new fiber ends

Influence of wide band gap oxide substrates on the photoelectrochemical properties and structural disorder of CdS nanoparticles grown by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method

• Mikalai V. Malashchonak,
• Alexander V. Mazanik,
• Olga V. Korolik,
• Еugene А. Streltsov and
• Anatoly I. Kulak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2252–2262, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.231

• significantly smaller in comparison with the ZnO and In2O3 films. Therefore, the light absorption in sulfide is the main factor limiting the photocurrent for the TiO2/CdS films, thus the increase in the amount of sulfide determines the IPCE growth over a wide range of N. At the same time, as will be shown later

Nonlinear optical properties of near-infrared region Ag₂S quantum dots pumped by nanosecond laser pulses

• Li-wei Liu,
• Si-yi Hu,
• Yin-ping Dou,
• Tian-hang Liu,
• Jing-quan Lin and
• Yue Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1781–1787, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.182

• properties of semiconductor nanocrystals [20][21][22]. Ag2S QDs have a wide range of applications in optical and other research fields. The development of their synthesis method may facilitate their application in optoelectronic devices for light absorption, photoconductor cells, IR detectors and so on [21

Atomic scale interface design and characterisation

• Carla Bittencourt,
• Chris Ewels and
• Arkady V. Krasheninnikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1708–1711, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.174

• barrier at the metal–nanostructure contact, thus investigation of the metal–nanostructure interaction aiming at understanding the physics and chemistry of this interface is critical for the design of optimal devices [1][2][3]. Potential applications of nanostructures such as spintronics, or light

• absorption and emission devices require doping [4][5]. In this context, conventional bulk doping techniques must be adapted, given the large surface to volume ratio of nanostructures, surface segregation of dopant atoms is a severe drawback. Therefore detailed knowledge and control of the physical and

Current–voltage characteristics of manganite–titanite perovskite junctions

• Benedikt Ifland,
• Patrick Peretzki,
• Birte Kressdorf,
• Philipp Saring,
• Andreas Kelling,
• Michael Seibt and
• Christian Jooss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1467–1484, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.152

• photovoltaic energy conversion [22]: the possibility of light absorption by intraband excitations of charge carriers and the harvesting hot carriers due to the rather long-lived excited states [21][23]. Hence, such materials are suitable to study the pathways of photovoltaic energy conversion beyond the

High photocatalytic activity of V-doped SrTiO₃ porous nanofibers produced from a combined electrospinning and thermal diffusion process

• Panpan Jing,
• Wei Lan,
• Qing Su and
• Erqing Xie

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1281–1286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.132

• light. This means that V5+ ion doping improves the impurity level and narrows the band gap of SrTiO3, leading to the enhanced light absorption. Additionally, based on earlier research regarding 3d ion doping for SrTiO3, V5+ doping may also improve the conductivity of SrTiO3. Hence, the higher

Improved optical limiting performance of laser-ablation-generated metal nanoparticles due to silica-microsphere-induced local field enhancement

• Zheren Du,
• Lianwei Chen,
• Tsung-Sheng Kao,
• Mengxue Wu and
• Minghui Hong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1199–1204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.122

• nanoparticles exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), which is another possible way for local field enhancement to influence the light absorption and scattering [25]. Conclusion In this paper, we have studied that LAL is a promising technique to generate nanoparticles for various target materials

Experimental determination of the light-trapping-induced absorption enhancement factor in DSSC photoanodes

• Serena Gagliardi and
• Mauro Falconieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 886–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.91

• produced by the concurrent phenomena of light absorption by dye molecules and light trapping in the mesoporous, titania photoanode structure. The decoupling of these two phenomena is important for device characterization and the design of novel photoelectrode geometries with increased optical performance

• (LT) phenomenon occurs in the active layer of the cell, resulting in enhanced light absorption and hence the overall improved cell efficiency. The beneficial influence of light scattering in DSSCs was first theoretically analyzed by Usami [4][5] and Ferber [6]. Rothemberger et al. [7] also proposed a

• ) AM1.5 illumination, provided by a class A solar simulator (Wacom). Modelling In the zero-order approximation, the only optical phenomenon occurring in the sensitized titania layer is the light absorption by the dye molecules. In this case, for a given dye composition of known molar absorptivity, the

Graphene quantum interference photodetector

• Mahbub Alam and
• Paul L. Voss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 726–735, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.74

• as high electrical mobility, high thermal conductivity, high mechanical strength, linear energy dispersion around the Dirac point and strong light absorption from near-infrared to visible wavelengths [1][2][3]. Graphene also exhibits ballistic electron transport over unusually long lengths [4][5][6

Morphological and structural characterization of single-crystal ZnO nanorod arrays on flexible and non-flexible substrates

• Omar F. Farhat,
• Mohd M. Halim,
• Mat J. Abdullah,
• Mohammed K. M. Ali and
• Nageh K. Allam

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 720–725, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.73

• distribution ensure a desired light absorption and propagation characteristics as well as percolation pathways for charge transfer. Experimental ZnO nanorod arrays were grown on three different substrates (glass, PET and Si) by the chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique. The substrates (2 × 2 cm) were

Simple approach for the fabrication of PEDOT-coated Si nanowires

• Mingxuan Zhu,
• Marielle Eyraud,
• Judikael Le Rouzo,
• Nadia Ait Ahmed,
• Florence Boulc’h,
• Claude Alfonso,
• Philippe Knauth and
• François Flory

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 640–650, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.65

• the transport path along the radial direction of photogenerated carriers to be greatly shortened without sacrificing light absorption [9]. However, the high aspect ratio of SiNWs makes it difficult to realize a radial p–n junction, where each individual Si wire in the array would need to be

• increases from b to d. Clearly, by increasing the tapering duration, the space between wires is increased, the density of wires is reduced, and their top becomes sharper. Spectrophotometric measurements were performed on these samples to determine their light absorption properties (Figure 3). Due to the

Palladium nanoparticles anchored to anatase TiO₂ for enhanced surface plasmon resonance-stimulated, visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

• Kah Hon Leong,
• Hong Ye Chu,
• Shaliza Ibrahim and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 428–437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.43

• with different amounts of palladium clearly shows the contribution of metallic Pd NPs. Although a small amount of Pd NPs enhanced the visible light absorption, a further increase of the Pd loading leads to an excessive absorption. This induced light scattering phenomena that resulted in deprived

• anchoring of Pd NPs onto the surface of TiO2, and the large size of the Pd NPs contributed to the visible-light absorption. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and the formation of a Schottky barrier at the TiO2 interface also occured. The prepared heterogeneous photocatalysts exhibited superior

Tunable white light emission by variation of composition and defects of electrospun Al₂O₃–SiO₂ nanofibers

• Jinyuan Zhou,
• Gengzhi Sun,
• Hao Zhao,
• Xiaojun Pan,
• Zhenxing Zhang,
• Yujun Fu,
• Yanzhe Mao and
• Erqing Xie

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 313–320, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.29

• . The inset optical photos in (a) and (c) are the corresponding light emission spot of Al6Si4 and Al4Si6 samples, respectively. (d) Energy transfer diagram indicating the mechanism for Al2O3–SiO2 nanocomposite emission. The dashed lines represent light absorption, the solid lines radiative transitions

Tunable light filtering by a Bragg mirror/heavily doped semiconducting nanocrystal composite

• Ilka Kriegel and
• Francesco Scotognella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 193–200, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.18

• reversibly tuned by electrochemical post-treatment leading to a switching of the plasma frequency throughout the NIR spectral region [33][36][37]. Taken altogether, the proposed theoretical framework is appropriate to describe the tuning of light absorption with doped semiconductor NCs in a dispersion or in

• carrier density in the heavily doped semiconductor NC component through chemical and electrochemical treatments, ultimately leading to tunable plasmonic light absorption. Illustration of the tunable optical properties of a) a Cu2−xSe NC dispersion and b) an ITO NC film as a function of carrier density NC

Localized surface plasmon resonances in nanostructures to enhance nonlinear vibrational spectroscopies: towards an astonishing molecular sensitivity

• Dan Lis and
• Francesca Cecchet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2275–2292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.237

• frequencies matching the energy gap between vibrational states (Figure 1). Physically, it corresponds to oscillators presenting a variation of the dipole moment. In fine, the transmitted or reflected beam intensity is reduced because of the light absorption. In spontaneous Raman spectroscopy, a monochromatic

Photodetectors based on carbon nanotubes deposited by using a spray technique on semi-insulating gallium arsenide

• Domenico Melisi,
• Maria Angela Nitti,
• Marco Valentini,
• Antonio Valentini,
• Teresa Ligonzo,
• Giuseppe De Pascali and
• Marianna Ambrico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1999–2006, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.208

• reported for SFS and DFS in Figure 5 and Figure 6 for the visible and the UV range, respectively. The higher QE of SFS with respect to DFS at lower wavelengths in the visible light range (Figure 5) can be attributed to the contribution to the photo-generated charges from the near-band-gap light absorption

Enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution by combining water soluble graphene with cobalt salts

• Jing Wang,
• Ke Feng,
• Hui-Hui Zhang,
• Bin Chen,
• Zhi-Jun Li,
• Qing-Yuan Meng,
• Li-Ping Zhang,
• Chen-Ho Tung and
• Li-Zhu Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1167–1174, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.128

• electron-donating ability and less Co(TEOA)22+ catalyst is formed. In a basic solution, the graphene dispersion was more stable and the light absorption of EY is stronger but the concentration of protons is too low. To optimize the hydrogen evolution system, four sets of experiments were carried out

DFT study of binding and electron transfer from colorless aromatic pollutants to a TiO₂ nanocluster: Application to photocatalytic degradation under visible light irradiation

• Corneliu I. Oprea,
• Petre Panait and
• Mihai A. Gîrţu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1016–1030, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.115

• irradiation decreases in the sequence SA > Ph > pHBA > BA. Thus, analyzing the pollutants against some requirements for efficient photocatalytic degradation, we found that BA has no absorption in the visible range even bound to the catalyst. Ph has best light absorption but weakest anchoring, pHBA has very