Recent progress in perovskite solar cells: the perovskite layer

• Xianfeng Dai,
• Ke Xu and
• Fanan Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 51–60, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.5

• technology; scalability; Review Introduction During the past decade, organic–inorganic halide perovskites (OIHP) have attracted great interest due to their special merits, including exciting optical properties, outstanding optical tunability and low-temperature solution processability. Recently, OIHPs have

Advanced hybrid nanomaterials

• Andreas Taubert,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Pierre Rabu and
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2563–2567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.247

• as insulating gates in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Optical properties are the focus in “Ceria/polymer nanocontainers for high-performance encapsulation of fluorophores” [30]. Here, an organic/inorganic system is based on a liquid core containing a fluorophore (terrylene diimide) within

Abrupt elastic-to-plastic transition in pentagonal nanowires under bending

• Sergei Vlassov,
• Magnus Mets,
• Boris Polyakov,
• Jianjun Bian,
• Leonid Dorogin and
• Vahur Zadin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2468–2476, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.237

• conductive network [14][15][16]. Ag NWs are a promising material for flexible transparent electrodes [17]. Plasmon propagation and the optical properties of Ag and Au NWs make them attractive for nanophotonics as waveguides for visible light [18][19][20][21][22][23]. In all these applications, NWs may

pH-Controlled fluorescence switching in water-dispersed polymer brushes grafted to modified boron nitride nanotubes for cellular imaging

• Saban Kalay,
• Yurij Stetsyshyn,
• Volodymyr Donchak,
• Khrystyna Harhay,
• Ostap Lishchynskyi,
• Halyna Ohar,
• Yuriy Panchenko,
• Stanislav Voronov and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2428–2439, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.233

• are revealed by the stretching vibrations at 1120 and 1050 cm−1. All of this spectral information confirms the successful fabrication of grafted P(AA-co-FA) brushes on oligoperoxide-functionalized BNNTs. The optical properties of P(AA-co-FA)-functionalized BNNTs were studied by absorption and confocal

Semitransparent Sb₂S₃ thin film solar cells by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis for use in solar windows

• Jako S. Eensalu,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Erki Kärber,
• Lothar Weinhardt,
• Monika Blum,
• Clemens Heske,
• Wanli Yang,
• Ilona Oja Acik and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2396–2409, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.230

• 600, FEI Company). The optical properties were measured using a UV–vis–NIR spectrophotometer (Jasco V-670, integrating sphere, air reference). The AVT was calculated as the arithmetic average of total transmittance of the glass/ITO/TiO2/Sb2S3 stack in the 380–740 nm wavelength range by using Equation

Polyvinylpyrrolidone as additive for perovskite solar cells with water and isopropanol as solvents

• Chen Du,
• Shuo Wang,
• Xu Miao,
• Wenhai Sun,
• Yu Zhu,
• Chengyan Wang and
• Ruixin Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2374–2382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.228

• decelerate the reaction between Pb(NO3)2 and MAX, thus making the perovskite film less defective, which is thought to be conducive to the performance of the PSCs [34]. UV-vis measurements were carried out to determine the influence of PVP on the optical properties of the perovskite films (Figure 7a). In

Nontoxic pyrite iron sulfide nanocrystals as second electron acceptor in PTB7:PC₇₁BM-based organic photovoltaic cells

• Olivia Amargós-Reyes,
• José-Luis Maldonado,
• Omar Martínez-Alvarez,
• María-Elena Nicho,
• José Santos-Cruz,
• Juan Nicasio-Collazo,
• Irving Caballero-Quintana and
• Concepción Arenas-Arrocena

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2238–2250, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.216

• Olivia Amargos-Reyes Jose-Luis Maldonado Omar Martinez-Alvarez Maria-Elena Nicho Jose Santos-Cruz Juan Nicasio-Collazo Irving Caballero-Quintana Concepcion Arenas-Arrocena Research Group of Optical Properties of Materials (GPOM), Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica A. C., León, Guanajuato, 37150

Nonlinear absorption and scattering of a single plasmonic nanostructure characterized by x-scan technique

• Tushar C. Jagadale,
• Dhanya S. Murali and
• Shi-Wei Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2182–2191, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.211

• nonlinearity of a single nanostructure, but also reports surprisingly large plasmonic nonlinearities. Keywords: absorption cross section; laser scanning microscopy; nanoplasmonics; nonlinear absorption; nonlinear scattering; single gold nanostructures; Introduction It is well known that the optical

• properties of plasmonic nanostructures differ significantly from those of the corresponding bulk materials, mainly because of two reasons, i.e., the enhancement in the surface-to-volume ratio and the appearance of resonance effects such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR). For example, the color, or more

Liquid crystal tunable claddings for polymer integrated optical waveguides

• José M. Otón,
• Manuel Caño-García,
• Fernando Gordo,
• Eva Otón,
• Morten A. Geday and
• Xabier Quintana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2163–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.209

• . These elements could contribute to the integrated circuit functionality if they were modulated either by variations of the core optical properties, or by using tunable claddings. In this work, the use of liquid crystals as electro-optically active claddings for driving integrated waveguides has been

Improved adsorption and degradation performance by S-doping of (001)-TiO₂

• Xiao-Yu Sun,
• Xian Zhang,
• Xiao Sun,
• Ni-Xian Qian,
• Min Wang and
• Yong-Qing Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2116–2127, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.206

• and B-doped (001)-TiO2 via a solvothermal method in order to improve the visible-light photocatalytic activity [15]. Cao et al. used first-principles simulations to study the electronic and optical properties of (001)-TiO2 and MoS2 composites. Their results suggested that the effective

Improvement of the thermoelectric properties of a MoO₃ monolayer through oxygen vacancies

• Wenwen Zheng,
• Wei Cao,
• Ziyu Wang,
• Huixiong Deng,
• Jing Shi and
• Rui Xiong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2031–2038, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.199

• –Ernzerhof (PBE) [20] pseudopotentials without spin–orbit interaction. Since the PBE functional fails to capture the electrical and optical properties of bulk MoO3 by a large margin (band gap of less than half of the experimental value), we also employ the Heyd–Scuseria–Ernzerhof (HSE06) hybrid functional

Optimization and performance of nitrogen-doped carbon dots as a color conversion layer for white-LED applications

• Tugrul Guner,
• Hurriyet Yuce,
• Didem Tascioglu,
• Eren Simsek,
• Umut Savaci,
• Aziz Genc,
• Servet Turan and
• Mustafa M. Demir

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2004–2013, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.197

• covers both the blue and the green range. The optical properties of the generated white light are presented in Figure 4b. The highest CRI of 86 is obtained for the sample CDR 1, while CDR 2 and CDR 3, having lower shares of N-CDots, showed the lowest CRI of 74 and 73, respectively. At the highest amount

• particular fiber mass, was squeezed between two thin glass slides. The corresponding spectra are presented in Figure 5 together with the resulting optical properties including CRI, CCT, LER and luminous flux. The PL spectra of the white light generated by employing color conversion layers with different

• blue when the fiber amount is set to 30 mg. Hence, without dealing with the N-CDot amount directly, one can tune the spectral shape of the generated white light just by adjusting the mass of the fibers integrated into the WLEDs. The resulting optical properties are given in Figure 5b. The WLEDs

Porous silver-coated pNIPAM-co-AAc hydrogel nanocapsules

• William W. Bryan,
• Riddhiman Medhi,
• Maria D. Marquez,
• Supparesk Rittikulsittichai,
• Michael Tran and
• T. Randall Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1973–1982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.194

• . The morphology and composition of the composite nanoparticles were characterized by SEM, TEM, and FTIR, respectively. UV–vis spectroscopy was used to characterize the optical properties. Keywords: hydrogels; nanocapsules; photothermal delivery; poly(NIPAM); porous silver shells; Introduction

• enhanced extinction compared to molecular chromophores [44][45]. This type of particle generally consists of a single metal or an alloy shell with or without a dielectric silica core [46][47][48]. Fortunately, for biological applications, the optical properties of the nanoshells can be tuned by varying the

• polymers to create a nanocomposite system in which the outer polymer shell can be thermally activated by absorption of light or by a magnetic field [41][61]. By combining the optical properties of nanoshells and the thermo-responsive activity of hydrogel polymers, the present study seeks to develop a

First principles modeling of pure black phosphorus devices under pressure

• Ximing Rong,
• Zhizhou Yu,
• Zewen Wu,
• Junjun Li,
• Bin Wang and
• Yin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1943–1951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.190

• accumulated isotropically in strain-reduced regions, instead of occurring in the regions with a high tensile strain like in MoS2. Deniz et al. investigated the strain-related optical properties of monolayer BP using first principles calculations [7]. They found that the optical response of BP is sensitive to

Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• eventually form a Si=O bridge, which does not require large additional amounts of energy or deformation to form [52][53]. These dangling bonds, which act as electrically active recombination centers for charge carriers, can alter the optical properties of the structure by contributing to oxide positive

Toxicity and safety study of silver and gold nanoparticles functionalized with cysteine and glutathione

• Barbara Pem,
• Igor M. Pongrac,
• Lea Ulm,
• Ivan Pavičić,
• Valerije Vrček,
• Darija Domazet Jurašin,
• Marija Ljubojević,
• Adela Krivohlavek and
• Ivana Vinković Vrček

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1802–1817, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.175

• out in 96-well plates using a VictorTM plate reader following protocols as described previously [90]. As the interference of AuNPs and AgNPs with these assays stems exclusively from the optical properties of the NPs, interference was avoided by eliminating NPs from the test system using careful

Growth dynamics and light scattering of gold nanoparticles in situ synthesized at high concentration in thin polymer films

• Corentin Guyot,
• Philippe Vandestrick,
• Ingrid Marenne,
• Olivier Deparis and
• Michel Voué

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1768–1777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.172

• pattern corresponding to local modifications of the optical properties of the film gradually appeared, which turned out to be the signature of the growth of the Au nanoparticles. Moreover, the monitoring of the statistical distribution of the ellipsometric angles during annealing helped evidencing two

• they have large third-order nonlinearity, ultrafast time response (about picoseconds) and saturable absorption behavior [18][19]. However, light scattering at the surface of the device could be an important drawback for this application. The optical properties of NPs come from collective oscillations

• the in situ growth of NPs. For this purpose, we performed the annealing of Au3+-doped PVA films and we quantified the scattering of light that is induced by the AuNP growth. We monitored the evolution of the locally resolved optical properties of the film using imaging ellipsometry (IE) and determined

Remarkable electronic and optical anisotropy of layered 1T’-WTe₂ 2D materials

• Qiankun Zhang,
• Rongjie Zhang,
• Jiancui Chen,
• Wanfu Shen,
• Chunhua An,
• Xiaodong Hu,
• Mingli Dong,
• Jing Liu and
• Lianqing Zhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1745–1753, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.170

• to understanding its structural and optical properties has been undertaken. Here we report quantitative, comprehensive work on the highly anisotropic, optical, electrical and optoelectronic properties of few-layer 1T’-WTe2 by azimuth-dependent reflectance difference microscopy, DC conductance

• monolayer 1T’-WTe2 has a highly in-plane anisotropic crystal structure, in addition to anisotropic electrical, thermal and optical properties [23][24][25][26]. However, most of the results are based on theoretical demonstrations of the anisotropic phenomenon, rather than further quantitative data for the

Materials nanoarchitectonics at two-dimensional liquid interfaces

• Katsuhiko Ariga,
• Michio Matsumoto,
• Taizo Mori and
• Lok Kumar Shrestha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1559–1587, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.153

• transformation upon exposing them to aliphatic alcohols of low molecular weight. The transformation of smooth-faced crystals to interpenetrated networks of one-dimensional needle crystals occurred while preserving the cubic shape. Several potential applications based on their electronic and optical properties

Rapid thermal annealing for high-quality ITO thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

• Petronela Prepelita,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Doina Craciun,
• Florin Garoi,
• Catalin Negrila,
• Beatrice Gabriela Sbarcea and
• Valentin Craciun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1511–1522, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.149

• treatment in an open atmosphere. Such films could be used to manufacture transparent contact electrodes for solar cells. Keywords: conductive transparent electrodes; indium tin oxide (ITO) films; optical properties; radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (rfMS); rapid thermal annealing (RTA); Introduction

• desired structure. In this paper, the influence of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on the structure and optical properties of ITO films, obtained by rfMS, are reported. We conducted studies to optimize the deposition parameters in order to obtain ITO thin films with excellent properties. The main

• , electrical and optical properties, making them highly suitable for use as efficient electrodes in photovoltaic devices. Experimental Indium tin oxide (ITO) films with thicknesses ranging from 230 to 370 nm were deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (rfMS). Quartz substrates (commercially

Magnetic segregation effect in liquid crystals doped with carbon nanotubes

• Danil A. Petrov,
• Pavel K. Skokov,
• Alexander N. Zakhlevnykh and
• Dmitriy V. Makarov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1464–1474, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.145

• modifies many properties of liquid crystals and leads to the possibility of obtaining new hybrid materials with unique electro- and magneto-optical properties, which opens prospects for new practical applications in optoelectronics, photonics, and display technology [11]. From a physical perspective, these

Direct observation of oxygen-vacancy formation and structural changes in Bi₂WO₆ nanoflakes induced by electron irradiation

• Hong-long Shi,
• Bin Zou,
• Zi-an Li,
• Min-ting Luo and
• Wen-zhong Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1434–1442, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.141

• ][2][3], and pyroelectric and non-linear optical properties [4][5]. Recently, Bi2WO6 has shown good performance in the degradation of organic compounds [6][7][8], and photocatalytic oxygen evolution [9][10] and CO2 reduction [11][12][13] under visible-light irradiation. Bi2WO6 is the simplest member

Highly ordered mesoporous silica film nanocomposites containing gold nanoparticles for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

• Mohamad Azani Jalani,
• Leny Yuliati,
• Siew Ling Lee and
• Hendrik O. Lintang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1368–1379, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.135

• TEM 3D tomography at low accelerating voltage with topography-based reconstruction to show the pore orientation at the various angles with the presence of AuNPs (see Supporting Information File 1 for the movie). Optical properties of AuNPs Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peaks in the UV–vis spectrum

Construction of a 0D/1D composite based on Au nanoparticles/CuBi₂O₄ microrods for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

• Weilong Shi,
• Mingyang Li,
• Hongji Ren,
• Feng Guo,
• Xiliu Huang,
• Yu Shi and
• Yubin Tang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1360–1367, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.134

• indexed to the (111) and (200) planes of Au, respectively, suggesting the Au/CBO composite photocatalyst was successfully prepared [24]. The UV–vis absorption spectra were recorded to discuss the optical properties of the photocatalysts (Figure 2b). Evidently, the absorption edge of pure CBO extended to

Angle-dependent structural colors in a nanoscale-grating photonic crystal fabricated by reverse nanoimprint technology

• Xu Zheng,
• Qing Wang,
• Jinjin Luan,
• Yao Li,
• Ning Wang and
• Rui Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1211–1216, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.120

• attracted great interest because of a possible application in visual sensors. The appearance of a photonic crystal is mainly influenced by the optical properties, structural parameters and the observation angle. In this work, an angle-sensitive photonic crystal with nanoscale gratings was fabricated through

• methods to prepare photonic crystals with grating pattern [8][9][10][11]. And NIL is most often reported because it is inexpensive and easily applied [12][13][14][15]. The appearance of a photonic crystal is mainly influenced by the optical properties, structural parameters and the observation angle [16

• ][17][18][19]. Duempelmann et al. fabricated asymmetric periodic nanostructures to explore the effects of the optical properties on the structural color [20]. Then, they used the photonic crystal as a strain sensor by mechanically changing the structural period to achieve the different structural