Experimental study of an evanescent-field biosensor based on 1D photonic bandgap structures

• Jad Sabek,
• Francisco Javier Díaz-Fernández,
• Luis Torrijos-Morán,
• Zeneida Díaz-Betancor,
• Ángel Maquieira,
• María-José Bañuls,
• Elena Pinilla-Cienfuegos and
• Jaime García-Rupérez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 967–974, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.97

• silsesquioxane (HSQ) resist layer. Then, the layout was transferred to the top 220 nm thick silicon layer of the SOI chip by means of inductively coupled plasma etching. 70 nm deep shallow etch 1D grating couplers were created for accessing the photonic chip. Finally, the chip is covered with a 400 nm thick SiO2

Structural and optical properties of penicillamine-protected gold nanocluster fractions separated by sequential size-selective fractionation

• Xiupei Yang,
• Zhengli Yang,
• Fenglin Tang,
• Jing Xu,
• Maoxue Zhang and
• Martin M. F. Choi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 955–966, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.96

• of the AuNCs can be improved to some extent by changing the ratio of the initial reactants (Au and ligand) and the synthesis conditions, or by other means such as heating [9], etching [10], and annealing [11], these methods are difficult to precisely control the size of the products. In addition, for

Renewable energy conversion using nano- and microstructured materials

• Harry Mönig and
• Martina Schmid

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 771–773, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.76

• : materials and devices” covers the photo-electrochemical growth of platinum catalysts at plasmonic hot spots [6], the laser-assisted local growth of chalcopyrite absorbers [4], the preferential reactive ion etching of silicon by morphological anisotropies [5], the oxidation of copper nanoparticles resulting

On the transformation of “zincone”-like into porous ZnO thin films from sub-saturated plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

• Alberto Perrotta,
• Julian Pilz,
• Stefan Pachmajer,
• Antonella Milella and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 746–759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.74

• element, oxygen, and an organic backbone, and are referred to as metal alkoxides or ‘metalcones’, e.g., alucones, zincones, and titanicones [2][4]. From the metal alkoxide produced with MLD, porous metal oxide thin films can be achieved through water etching or thermal treatments in the presence of oxygen

A porous 3D-RGO@MWCNT hybrid material as Li–S battery cathode

• Yongguang Zhang,
• Jun Ren,
• Yan Zhao,
• Taizhe Tan,
• Fuxing Yin and
• Yichao Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 514–521, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.52

• (Figure 2a). After HF etching, a 3D-RGO@MWCNT was obtained (Figure 2b,c). The porous spherical indents (ca. 200 nm) remained after the removal of SiO2 (Figure 3a). Furthermore, after sulfur loading, both SEM (Figure 2d) and TEM (Figure 3b) images revealed that the structure remained in the resulting S-3D

• reduction of GO, and v) SiO2 etching by HF. Firstly, monodispersed SiO2 spheres with diameters of 200–300 nm were prepared. After washing and drying, the SiO2 sphere particles was subsequently dispersed in DI water at a concentration of 50 mg·mL−1 (suspension A). Secondly, the GO from Hummer’s method was

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

• of such defected crystal structures. Also, the assumption that all nanotubes have the same size is a huge simplification. It could be also estimated by weight measurements of the electrode before and after chemical etching of the TiO2 nanotubes, e.g., using HF. However, selective detaching of

Reduced graphene oxide supported C₃N₄ nanoflakes and quantum dots as metal-free catalysts for visible light assisted CO₂ reduction

• Md Rakibuddin and
• Haekyoung Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 448–458, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.44

• nanoflakes are converted to quantum dots is around 170 °C (Figure 7). With an increase of temperature from 130 to 170 °C, the particle size starts to become smaller, and at above 170 °C, QDs are predominantly formed. When a g-C3N4 nanosheet is subjected to acid etching followed by long term (10–20 h

• subjected to acid etching followed by hydrothermal treatment to obtain 0D g-C3N4 QDs [19]. In brief, the g-C3N4 nanosheets (0.5 g) were oxidized with concentrated H2SO4 (50 mL) and HNO3 (100 mL) for 4 h under ultrasonication. A clear solution was formed, which was diluted with deionized (DI) water (100 mL

Improving control of carbide-derived carbon microstructure by immobilization of a transition-metal catalyst within the shell of carbide/carbon core–shell structures

• Teguh Ariyanto,
• Jan Glaesel,
• Andreas Kern,
• Gui-Rong Zhang and
• Bastian J. M. Etzold

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 419–427, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.41

• types of carbides [19]). Commonly used graphitization catalysts are transitions metals such as Fe, Ni, and Co [18][21][22]. The conventional method for catalytic graphitization is to mix the non-porous carbide and metal catalyst precursor prior to the selective etching at high temperature. Indeed, the

Effects of post-lithography cleaning on the yield and performance of CVD graphene-based devices

• Eduardo Nery Duarte de Araujo,
• Thiago Alonso Stephan Lacerda de Sousa,
• Luciano de Moura Guimarães and
• Flavio Plentz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 349–355, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.34

• graphene device production yield, but impair the overall electronic performance of the devices. First photolithography step for the definition of the graphene structure: a) photoresist coating onto graphene; b) exposure of photoresist using direct laser writing; c) development of exposed areas; d) etching

Geometrical optimisation of core–shell nanowire arrays for enhanced absorption in thin crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Robin Vismara,
• Olindo Isabella,
• Andrea Ingenito,
• Fai Tong Si and
• Miro Zeman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 322–331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.31

• array. The standard manufacturing procedure of c-Si heterojunction solar cells was followed, with the only addition of a cost-effective mask-less reactive ion etching step to create nanowires on the surface of the p-type Si wafer. The resulting 5 × 5 mm2 cell exhibits a best-device efficiency of 11.8

• characterisation The nanowire array was manufactured on a p-type mono-crystalline silicon wafer by reactive ion etching (RIE) using a gaseous mixture of SF6 and O2, followed by standard cleaning, rinsing in de-ionised water and drying of the substrate. In particular, the SF6/O2 plasma provides a continuous flow of

• fluorine radicals (F*) and oxygen radicals O*, which feed two competing chemical reactions: F* and Si react to form SF4+ ions, while from the reaction of O* and Si a silicon oxyfluorine (SiOxFy) layer is formed. This layer acts as mask against F* etching, but is physically broken by sputtered ions

Site-specific growth of oriented ZnO nanocrystal arrays

• Rekha Bai,
• Dinesh K. Pandya,
• Sujeet Chaudhary,
• Veer Dhaka,
• Vladislav Khayrudinov,
• Jori Lemettinen,
• Christoffer Kauppinen and
• Harri Lipsanen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 274–280, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.26

• grow ZnO nanocrystals on both bare and on an array of pores patterned on the polymer-coated indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) conducting substrates. The patterning process for the polymer, poly(Disperse Red 1 acrylate), involves laser interference lithography and oxygen plasma etching and has been reported

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

• sandwich-like structures at which 2 nm of Te or Se was deposited on top of 20 nm Ag or Au and then covered with another 20 nm of the same metal. Then the sample was stored for 20 days in order to allow for the diffusion and segregation progress. Then, XPS measurements interlaced with Ar-ion etching allowed

• for measurement of the atomic concentration of Te in such structures as a function of etching time, which is equivalent to the subsurface depth. The results for Te are presented in Figure 2 (left). A very high concentration of tellurium around the seventh to eighth minute of etching, which is

• results) or at least the greatest at the middle of it. This is not the case since there is a profound dip after 6–7 minutes of etching. This indicates that tellurium has indeed segregated (and not diffused) into the silver structure. However, unlike germanium, which segregates only towards the surface of

Sputtering of silicon nanopowders by an argon cluster ion beam

• Xiaomei Zeng,
• Vasiliy Pelenovich,
• Zhenguo Wang,
• Wenbin Zuo,
• Sergey Belykh,
• Alexander Tolstogouzov,
• Dejun Fu and
• Xiangheng Xiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 135–143, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.13

• near 17 keV. The dose and energy dependence of the sputtering yield was explained by the competition of the finite size effect and the effect of debris formation. Keywords: finite size effect; gas cluster ion beam; silicon nanoparticles; smoothing effect; sputtering; Introduction Etching using gas

Bidirectional biomimetic flow sensing with antiparallel and curved artificial hair sensors

• Claudio Abels,
• Antonio Qualtieri,
• Toni Lober,
• Alessandro Mariotti,
• Lily D. Chambers,
• Massimo De Vittorio,
• William M. Megill and
• Francesco Rizzi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 32–46, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.4

• . Experimental Sensor fabrication During the fabrication process, thin silicon nitride/silicon layers are stacked together on a silicon wafer substrate and precisely shaped into the desired cantilever geometry by performing an etching process. In the following, we describe the MEMS fabrication process for the

• ) piezoresistors, which are 100 nm thick and distributed along the full length of the cantilever beam. In a subsequent deposition step, four 150 nm thick gold (Au) contact pads are deposited. Defining the cantilever U-shapes: A trifluoromethane (CHF3) based inductively coupled plasma (ICP) dry etching step at the

• substrate top side was performed to generate the U-shaped release patterns for two cantilever beams. The top side SiN layer is patterned and etching is stopped at the silicon device layer (300 nm etching depth). Releasing the cantilevers: In this manufacturing step, the generated U-shaped patterns are used

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

• the one hand, studies were published in which CIGSe micro solar cells have been produced by top-down approaches such as etching or shading of flat absorbers. Paire et al. achieved an absolute increase in efficiency of 5% with 475 suns [12] and Reinhold et al. up to 4.8% for point-shaped cells [13

• ]. They demonstrated that the increase in cell efficiency and the optimum light concentration varied with the size of the cells. Lotter et al. achieved a CIGSe micro cell efficiency as high as 22.5% under 77 suns by selective etching of the front contact layers [14]. While these studies show the

• layer was always observed. In order to avoid the undesired formation of a thin CuGaSe2 layer connecting the separate CIGSe islands after processing, this gallium wetting layer was removed by a mild reactive ion etching step in Ar+ plasma. LIFT approach The second approach presented here for the

Hydrogen-induced plasticity in nanoporous palladium

• Markus Gößler,
• Eva-Maria Steyskal,
• Markus Stütz,
• Norbert Enzinger and
• Roland Würschum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 3013–3024, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.280

• metallic nanoporous structures. By exposing a (binary) alloy to an etching agent, the less noble component is gradually removed, while enhancing the surface diffusivity of the other. Surface diffusion is of special importance for the formation of nanoporous networks, as passivation of the alloy surface due

• to a flawless coverage by the noble component prevents the etching process. After Erlebacher et al. delivered a full description of the dealloying process on an atomistic scale [10], the process itself has been extensively studied [11][12][13], while being used to prepare a broad variety of different

Electrostatic force microscopy for the accurate characterization of interphases in nanocomposites

• Diana El Khoury,
• Richard Arinero,
• Jean-Charles Laurentie,
• Mikhaël Bechelany,
• Michel Ramonda and
• Jérôme Castellon

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2999–3012, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.279

• 0.011 mbar. O2 was then introduced using a needle valve, and the pressure was equilibrated to 0.6 mbar by adjusting the valve. After the equilibrium pressure was reached, a radio frequency power of 50 W at 0.15 A was applied until the desired diameter (around 380 nm after 16 min etching) was obtained

Charged particle single nanometre manufacturing

• Philip D. Prewett,
• Cornelis W. Hagen,
• Claudia Lenk,
• Steve Lenk,
• Marcus Kaestner,
• Tzvetan Ivanov,
• Ahmad Ahmad,
• Ivo W. Rangelow,
• Xiaoqing Shi,
• Stuart A. Boden,
• Alex P. G. Robinson,
• Dongxu Yang,
• Sangeetha Hari,
• Marijke Scotuzzi and
• Ejaz Huq

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2855–2882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.266

• , nanomaterials and nano-electro-mechanical systems. Until now, the leading method for scaled-up fabrication of nanostructures has been optical lithography, combined with pattern transfer techniques including plasma etching. Despite its success, optical lithography is reaching its resolution limits and new

• lithography are the leading top-down methods. In this review we focus on another top-down generic technology, namely nanostructuring by charged particle beams used to expose a resist, which can be used as a mask for pattern transfer etching and metal deposition etc. Nanolithography using charged particle

• [36] and this was chosen for scanning He+ ion beam lithography (SHIBL) experiments. In order to enable sub-10 nm patterning, an ultra-thin resist film, with small molecules is required. High-fidelity pattern transfer via plasma etching requires high carbon content in the resist, with as many of the

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

• silver electrodes. This is the most widely studied synthesis and is still subject to further investigation and optimization to obtain more efficient SERS substrates [2][8][9][10][11]. One modification of the electrochemical fabrication of SERS substrates involves the electrochemical etching of silver to

• . Etching of silver films by means of hydrogen plasma in an inductively coupled plasma system has also been previously observed and the reasons for this etching could be ion bombardment leading to physical sputtering together with chemical etching for which the formation of a silver dihydride anion (AgH2

• −) as etching product has been suggested as it is more stable than silver hydride [78]. As can be seen in the top SEM images (Figure 2a–c) and in the cross-sectional SEM images (Figure 2d) holes are formed in the silver film, which increase in size and depth with increasing hydrogen plasma treatment

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

• spectroscopy (TERS) has become a well-applied technique for nanospectroscopy, allowing for single molecule sensitivity with sub-nanometer spatial resolution. The demand for efficient, reproducible and cost-effective probes for TERS is increasing. Here we report on a new electrochemical etching protocol to

• fabricate TERS tips starting from 125 µm diameter gold wires in a reproducible way. The process is reliable (50% of the tips have radius of curvature <35 nm, 66% <80 nm), fast (less than 2 min) and 2.5 times cheaper than the etching of standard 250 µm diameter wires. The TERS performance of the tips is

• tip [29][30]. TERS tips are nowadays produced by the chemical/electrochemical etching of metal wires [31][32][33][34][35], metal coatings of AFM tips [36][37][38], electroless deposition, [39] galvanic displacement [40] or by advanced nanostructuration techniques such as electron beam induced

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

• regions were acquired with 10 eV pass energy and about 0.4 eV spectral resolution to discriminate the substructure of the spectral lines. Ar+ ion cluster etching was employed for XPS depth profiling and the calibration was carried out using a typical Mo on glass sample with sputtering rate of 15.5 nm/s

• any Cr or Na signal in the Mo layer, by etching the film via argon gas cluster ions for 4 min before each XPS acquisition until the signal from the substrate was visible. The result is shown in Figure 7 for a Mo/Cr film deposited at 200 W and 3 mTorr (high-resolution spectra of Mo 3d and Cr 2p are

Impact of the anodization time on the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ nanotubes

• Jesús A. Díaz-Real,
• Geyla C. Dubed-Bandomo,
• Juan Galindo-de-la-Rosa,
• Luis G. Arriaga,
• Janet Ledesma-García and
• Nicolas Alonso-Vante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2628–2643, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.244

• , high specific surface area, high mass-transport rate, and remarkable light-harvesting properties [17][18]. Generally, the electrochemical anodization process implies that the anodic polarization of a mechanically/chemically prepared Ti sheet induces the growth of TNTs using an etching agent (typically

• area of the TNTs. However, the physicochemical and the photoelectronic properties of the TNTs were not considered in their work. For example, the well-documented etching effect of the F− ions was not considered. Herein, we prepared TNTs by anodization in a typical ethylene glycol-based electrolyte and

• . Fluorinated structures show physical modification (e.g., thinning of outer and inner diameter) via chemical etching through the fluoride ions dissolving the oxide (TiO2 + 6F− + 4H+ → [TiF6]2− + 2H2O). This change in the surface geometry is accompanied by a modification of the surface composition and is

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

• approaches to realize such textured surfaces, such as chemical etching [12] or material indentation [13], the use of lasers is established as the most versatile and economical method [14]. The most common texturing element is the round dimple [10][14], with which friction reduction of around 80% has been

ZnO-nanostructure-based electrochemical sensor: Effect of nanostructure morphology on the sensing of heavy metal ions

• Marina Krasovska,
• Vjaceslavs Gerbreders,
• Irena Mihailova,
• Andrejs Ogurcovs,
• Eriks Sledevskis,
• Andrejs Gerbreders and
• Pavels Sarajevs

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2421–2431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.227

• . The sample was then removed from the solution, rinsed several times with distilled water and thermally treated at 90–110 °C for 30 min in order to remove the adsorbed water. For more detailed information see [17][18]. ZnO nanotube arrays were obtained using a self-selective etching method based on

• of nanorods: equimolar aqueous solution of 0.1 M Zn(NO3)2 + 0.1 M C6H12N4. The growth process was divided into two stages: growth of ZnO nanorods at 90 °C for three hours, and selective etching of ZnO nanorods at 50 °C for eighteen hours. After the growth process, the samples were rinsed several

• a high degree of crystallinity. In the case of the nanotubes, the intensity of the peak corresponding to the (002) plane is about four times lower than in the case of nanorods, indicating good efficiency of metastable plane etching. The EDS spectrum confirms that the as-synthesized samples are

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

• Ar/H2 plasma etching at 300 W for 1 h. An exemplary quasi-hexagon pattern is drawn (yellow) for visualization. (B) Inkjet-printed 4 × 4 droplet pattern after drying and Ar/H2 plasma treatment at 300 W for 1 h. Both images were recorded with SEM. SEM images of size and droplet shape on the five

• different materials (A–E) and nanodot distribution after Ar/H2 plasma etching in the center of each droplet (A1−E1). The substrates are: (A) poly-silicon, (B) amorphous silicon of 200 nm thickness on poly-silicon, (C) amorphous silicon of 400 nm thickness on poly-silicon, (D) 50 µm thick free-standing