Increasing the stability of DNA nanostructure templates by atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃ and its application in imprinting lithography

• Hyojeong Kim,
• Kristin Arbutina,
• Anqin Xu and
• Haitao Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2363–2375, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.236

• film (Figure 5). We note that the polymer residue was not observed on the surface of the DNA nanotube master template with the ca. 5 nm thick Al2O3 film even after the 5th replication. The surface roughness of Al2O3 film grown using ALD slowly increases as the number of cycles goes up [49]. Therefore

Surfactant-induced enhancement of droplet adhesion in superhydrophobic soybean (Glycine max L.) leaves

• Oliver Hagedorn,
• Ingo Fleute-Schlachter,
• Hans Georg Mainx,
• Viktoria Zeisler-Diehl and
• Kerstin Koch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2345–2356, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.234

• of wax platelets composed of n-hexatriacontane [43]. Smaller sizes of wax crystals reduce the surface roughness and the contact angle and also increase the adherence of the droplets to the surfaces, as indicated by the hysteresis or given tilt angles [42][43]. Surfactants with a high HLB value (XP ED

Tailoring the nanoscale morphology of HKUST-1 thin films via codeposition and seeded growth

• Landon J. Brower,
• Lauren K. Gentry,
• Amanda L. Napier and
• Mary E. Anderson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2307–2314, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.230

• characterize samples, investigating surface morphology, surface roughness, and film thickness. Results and Discussion For this study of codeposition and seeded surMOF film growth, the MOF was anchored to the substrate by a SAM of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid (MHDA), which was formed on a thermally deposited

• Nanoscope Analysis software (Bruker, Santa Barbara, CA, USA). This program was used to appropriately flatten and scale the image. The geometric average surface roughness, Rq, was calculated for each image. The reported roughness values and standard deviations herein (Table 1) reflect the average Rq from a

The interplay between spin densities and magnetic superexchange interactions: case studies of mono- and trinuclear bis(oxamato)-type complexes

• Azar Aliabadi,
• Bernd Büchner,
• Vladislav Kataev and
• Tobias Rüffer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2245–2256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.224

• of spintronic devices in detail, we focused on the synthesis of type-III complexes as models of SMMs with the aim to deposit them as thin films on surfaces. Already in 2006, we reported on the deposition of thin films of a type-III complex by spin coating [27], although the surface roughness of the

Angstrom-scale flatness using selective nanoscale etching

• Takashi Yatsui,
• Hiroshi Saito and
• Katsuyuki Nobusada

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2181–2185, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.217

• obtained 0 min, 5 min, and 35 min after wet etching. In the AFM images, the surface roughness (Ra) was found to be 0.161, 0.134, and 0.100 nm, respectively (solid circles in Figure 3d). In addition, we checked the Ra where light was not irradiated with the Ca(ClO)2 solution and found that its value was

• unchanged (0.139 nm for before and 0.138 nm for after etching; solid squares in Figure 3d). These results indicate that near-field wet etching decreased the surface roughness. We also plotted the root mean square (RMS) roughness values in Figure 3d. Although the value is not the same, they have a similar

• , further control of the selective etching at smaller scales should be achievable by controlling mean free path (i.e. the partial pressure of the gas). Schematic of the near-field etching process. Experimental setup for the near-field wet etching technique. Time dependence of surface roughness using a

A comparative study of the nanoscale and macroscale tribological attributes of alumina and stainless steel surfaces immersed in aqueous suspensions of positively or negatively charged nanodiamonds

• Colin K. Curtis,
• Antonin Marek,
• Alex I. Smirnov and
• Jacqueline Krim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2045–2059, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.205

• consistent with strong attachment of NDs and/or chemical changes to the surfaces. AFM images of the surfaces indicated slight increases in the surface roughness upon an exposure to both +ND and −ND suspensions. A suggested mechanism for these observations is that carboxylated −NDs from aqueous suspensions

• saturates towards a value of σs and no longer exhibits fractal scaling. The surface roughness parameters (D, ξ and σs) reported herein were obtained from the log(σ) vs log(scan size) plot method as described by Krim and co-workers [32]. Previously, a detailed comparison of the results obtained by this

• experimental shifts are attributable to the surface roughness of the electrodes. Changes in f and R for the samples exposed to ND suspensions were found to be dependent on the ND surface charge. Both the alumina and SS304 samples exhibit a slow, yet a small increase in f upon an exposure to +ND suspension

Growth and characterization of textured well-faceted ZnO on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates for solar cell applications

• Chin-Yi Tsai,
• Jyong-Di Lai,
• Shih-Wei Feng,
• Chien-Jung Huang,
• Chien-Hsun Chen,
• Fann-Wei Yang,
• Hsiang-Chen Wang and
• Li-Wei Tu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1939–1945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.194

• -sized texture of the Si substrate has a limited contribution. Discussion The main grain orientation, surface morphology, AFM surface roughness (Rq) from AFM, average grain size (D), strain (ε), and CL intensity of samples ZnOp(100), ZnOp(111), and ZnOt(100) are shown in Table 1. The results clearly

• wafer surface. The surface roughness of these pyramidal structures was measured as 0.226 µm using AFM. Therefore, the average size of the pyramidal structures was taken to be approximately this value. The pyramidal structures will expose their (111) facets to the wafer surface. However, their physical

• : 48.488 nm), (b) ZnOp(111) (Rq: 48.284 nm), and (c) ZnOt(100). Surface roughness of each sample, Rq, is given in parentheses when available. (a) The lattice mismatch between a ZnO(110) unit cell of 5.63 Å (× lattice constant a) by 5.20 Å (lattice constant c) and a Si(100) cubic unit cell of 5.43 Å by 5.43

Stick–slip boundary friction mode as a second-order phase transition with an inhomogeneous distribution of elastic stress in the contact area

• Iakov A. Lyashenko,
• Vadym N. Borysiuk and
• Valentin L. Popov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1889–1896, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.189

• mode occurs in tribological systems when the thickness of the lubricant layer separating two contacting surfaces is significantly smaller than the typical size of the surface roughness. At such a system configuration, the lateral motion of the friction surface is followed by a contact interaction

(Metallo)porphyrins for potential materials science applications

• Lars Smykalla,
• Carola Mende,
• Michael Fronk,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Michael Hietschold,
• Georgeta Salvan,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn,
• Oliver G. Schmidt,
• Tobias Rüffer and
• Heinrich Lang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1786–1800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.180

• electronic transitions. Furthermore, VASE can give an insight into structure and morphology of the films in terms of film thickness, surface roughness, as well as average orientation of the (metallo)porphyrin molecules in the films. Interplay of hydrogen bonding and molecule–substrate interaction in self

Nanotribological behavior of deep cryogenically treated martensitic stainless steel

• Germán Prieto,
• Konstantinos D. Bakoglidis,
• Walter R. Tuckart and
• Esteban Broitman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1760–1768, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.177

• friction coefficient, and a load of 3 µN in a stroke of 10 µm for 12 scanning cycles was used to evaluate the surface roughness. The obtained topographic information at the low load is used to calculate the wear rate and roughness evolution, while the force transducers measure the friction force variations

Collembola cuticles and the three-phase line tension

• Håkon Gundersen,
• Hans Petter Leinaas and
• Christian Thaulow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1714–1722, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.172

• resting on a solid surface, the three phase line is simply the contact line between the drop and the surface. In the case of a drop resting on the top of surface roughness features (i.e., a Cassie–Baxter model state), the three phase line is the sum of the contact lines of each wetted roughness top. By

• lengths and correspondingly large total line energies. Partial wetting is a state where a liquid rests on top of surface roughness features such that the roughness tops are wetted, while the substrate between tops is not wetted. Partial wetting is often referred to as a composite wetting state or a Cassie

• inherent contact angle of the smooth solid. Zheng et al. included a the three-phase line tension in the Cassie–Baxter equation, see Equation 3 [16], where S is the “roughness factor” S = As/L, the ratio between the cross-sectional area (As) and perimeter (L) of a surface roughness top. lcr is an

Surface functionalization of 3D-printed plastics via initiated chemical vapor deposition

• Christine Cheng and
• Malancha Gupta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1629–1636, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.162

• PLA and flat PPFDA due to surface roughness [34]. Penetration of polymer through the lattice was also confirmed by deposition on the silicon wafer piece underneath the lattice. We used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) (Figure 2b) to compare the spectra of the PPFDA film deposited on the

Parylene C as a versatile dielectric material for organic field-effect transistors

• Tomasz Marszalek,
• Maciej Gazicki-Lipman and
• Jacek Ulanski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1532–1545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.155

• polymer is low. It is known that Parylene C films deposited at high pressure and high deposition rate are rough and have non-uniform and poor dielectric properties. A small increase of the deposition rate from 0.015 to 0.08 g/min results in a growth of the root-mean-square surface roughness from 5.78 to

• 9.53 nm [29]. The same effect of an increasing roughness with increasing deposition rate was observed when various film thicknesses were compared (Figure 2) [30]. Therefore, when increasing the sublimation rate, one should be aware of the resulting increase of the film surface roughness. Xylylene

• has on the performance of the single-crystal transistor. Of two crystalline forms of dithiophene-tetrathiafulvalene, the monoclinic alpha polymorph substantially outperformed the hexagonal beta polymorph [45]. The influence of the surface roughness of a dielectric film on the molecular arrangement of

The effect of the electrical double layer on hydrodynamic lubrication: a non-monotonic trend with increasing zeta potential

• Dalei Jing,
• Yunlu Pan and
• Xiaoming Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1515–1522, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.152

• interface). Li [9] theoretically studied the combined roles of EDL and surface roughness on the hydrodynamic lubrication. Huang and his colleagues [8][10][13] systematically studied the effects of EDL on the hydrodynamic lubrication or elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication, where the effect of zeta potential was

Growth, structure and stability of sputter-deposited MoS₂ thin films

• Reinhard Kaindl,
• Bernhard C. Bayer,
• Roland Resel,
• Thomas Müller,
• Viera Skakalova,
• Gerlinde Habler,
• Rainer Abart,
• Alexey S. Cherevan,
• Dominik Eder,
• Maxime Blatter,
• Fabian Fischer,
• Jannik C. Meyer,
• Dmitry K. Polyushkin and
• Wolfgang Waldhauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.113

• secondary electron scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image. This observation is confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) images and a low AFM-derived root-mean-squared (RMS) surface roughness of ≈0.8 nm. No voids are detected in the films, indicating a compact morphology. At 400 °C deposition temperature

• the film surface appears structured in nanometer-sized grains, as visible both in the SEM and AFM images. Correspondingly, the granular surface exhibits a much higher RMS surface roughness of ≈3.4 nm. The formation of smooth MoS2 films during RT PVD compared to a nano-grained rougher surface for 400

• ]. X-ray reflectivity (XRR) measurements provide further insights into the properties of our MoS2 films. Figure 2 and Table 1 give XRR-patterns and resulting data on film thickness, surface roughness and mass density of the two films (≈10 nm) deposited at RT and 400 °C, respectively. The thickness

The integration of graphene into microelectronic devices

• Guenther Ruhl,
• Sebastian Wittmann,
• Matthias Koenig and
• Daniel Neumaier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1056–1064, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.107

• compressive strain of approximately −0.1% [49]. On epitaxial germanium(001) with a higher surface roughness there is a higher compressive strain in the range between −0.37% and −0.25% [33]. Thus, it is crucial to provide substrates as smooth as possible for graphene integration. 4 Encapsulation In order to

Assembly of metallic nanoparticle arrays on glass via nanoimprinting and thin-film dewetting

• Sun-Kyu Lee,
• Sori Hwang,
• Yoon-Kee Kim and
• Yong-Jun Oh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1049–1055, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.106

• surface roughness relative to the film thickness or is not continuous, the film will break up into multiple fine particles clustered around the pits and mesas. This is the case of Figure 6a,b for the 8 nm thick Ag film on the imprinted sol–gel silica. The size uniformity of the assembled metal particles

Near-field surface plasmon field enhancement induced by rippled surfaces

• Mario D’Acunto,
• Francesco Fuso,
• Ruggero Micheletto,
• Makoto Naruse,
• Francesco Tantussi and
• Maria Allegrini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 956–967, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.97

• . Modeling Influence of surface roughness on interference patterns of surface plasmons: near-field optical properties The need to include the surface roughness into numerical models for plasmonic systems restricts the choice of numerical near-field methods [25][26][27][28]. Commonly recognized methods to

Vapor-phase-synthesized fluoroacrylate polymer thin films: thermal stability and structural properties

• Paul Christian and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 933–942, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.95

• predominantly affects the water contact angle of the PFDA homopolymer. A decrease of the WCA to 121 ± 1° results, while the cross-linked polymers show little to no change, independent of the degree of cross-linking. In Figure 4b, the root mean square surface roughness, σRMS, of the full-scale AFM micrographs

• formation of cracks, a pronounced decrease in the σRMS value was observed for the PFDA homopolymer, resulting in a much smoother film. This suggests that the initial WCA of the p-PFDA films stems in fact from a combination of hydrophobicity by the perfluorinated groups and the high surface roughness present

• -treated (b) p-PFDA films with different degrees of EGDMA cross-linking. The data are represented on individual color scales for clarity. Water contact angle (WCA) (a) and root mean square surface roughness (σRMS) (b) of p-PFDA films with different degrees of EGDMA cross-linking, as determined by the

Synthesis of coaxial nanotubes of polyaniline and poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) by oxidative/initiated chemical vapor deposition

• Alper Balkan,
• Efe Armagan and
• Gozde Ozaydin Ince

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 872–882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.89

• degree of crystallinity [47]. The surface morphology of the PANI thin films was examined by using AFM analysis (Figure 4). The RMS surface roughness of the as-deposited thin films of 350 nm thickness was measured as 30 nm on a flat substrate, and the roughness increased with film thickness. When the

• annealing temperature was increased, the RMS roughness of the PANI thin films decreased. The decrease in surface roughness with increasing temperatures can be explained by the rearrangement of amorphous part of polymer chains and formation of new crystalline regions on the surface that reduce the

• -coated glass slides in order to find the band gap of fabricated PANI and to confirm the electrical conductivity of the film by calculating band-transition energies. Atomic force microscopy (Bruker Multimode 8, ScanAsyst) was used to acquire topography and surface roughness of as-deposited and annealed

Surface improvement of organic photoresists using a near-field-dependent etching method

• Felix J. Brandenburg,
• Tomohiro Okamoto,
• Hiroshi Saito,
• Benjamin Leuschel,
• Olivier Soppera and
• Takashi Yatsui

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 784–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.81

• 68057, France 10.3762/bjnano.8.81 Abstract Surface flattening techniques are extremely important for the development of future electrical and/or optical devices because carrier-scattering losses due to surface roughness severely limit the performance of nanoscale devices. To address the problem, we

• reduction of the surface roughness was observed as compared to the 325 nm light. These results indicate that even wavelengths above 325 nm can cause surface roughness improvements without notably changing the structure of the photoresist. Keywords: near-field etching; organic photoresists; surface

• improvement; wavelength dependence; Introduction As the structures fabricated in the field of semiconductors has reached below 10 nm [1], and the pursuit of ever smaller node sizes continues, the impact of the surface roughness (SR) becomes increasingly critical [2]. In attempts to downscale the minimum

Anodization-based process for the fabrication of all niobium nitride Josephson junction structures

• Massimiliano Lucci,
• Ivano Ottaviani,
• Matteo Cirillo,
• Fabio De Matteis,
• Roberto Francini,
• Vittorio Merlo and
• Ivan Davoli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 539–546, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.58

• range of 300–1000 nm, connected to the vacuum chamber by means of an optical fibre pointing directly into the plasma. The measurements of hardness, reduced modulus and surface roughness have been performed by Nano Test Micro Materials Ltd., using a diamond Berkovich tip. Results and Discussion NbN films

Thin SnO_x films for surface plasmon resonance enhanced ellipsometric gas sensing (SPREE)

• Daniel Fischer,
• Andreas Hertwig,
• Uwe Beck,
• Volkmar Lohse,
• Detlef Negendank,
• Martin Kormunda and
• Norbert Esser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 522–529, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.56

• means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transimission electron mircoscopy (TEM) measurements. These measurements are reported in [18][19]. It was found that the intended layer structure (glass-gold-SnOx) was achieved and the surface roughness is low (root mean square average of height deviation Rq

Impact of air exposure and annealing on the chemical and electronic properties of the surface of SnO₂ nanolayers deposited by rheotaxial growth and vacuum oxidation

• Monika Kwoka and
• Maciej Krzywiecki

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 514–521, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.55

• the z-scanning stage. No other corrections to the images were made. For quantitative topography analysis the Gwyddion® software was also used. As the measurement of surface roughness, the root mean square (RMS) of roughness was quantified, where the root mean deviation from a plane was analyzed

Advances in the fabrication of graphene transistors on flexible substrates

• Gabriele Fisichella,
• Stella Lo Verso,
• Silvestra Di Marco,
• Vincenzo Vinciguerra,
• Emanuela Schilirò,
• Salvatore Di Franco,
• Raffaella Lo Nigro,
• Fabrizio Roccaforte,
• Amaia Zurutuza,
• Alba Centeno,
• Sebastiano Ravesi and
• Filippo Giannazzo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 467–474, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.50

• dielectric thickness. The Al-coated Si wafer was prepared by depositing a 200 nm thick Al film by RF reactive sputtering with a surface roughness (measured by AFM, image not reported) of about 4.3 nm. The RMS roughness values obtained for both the LT Al2O3 (Figure 1c, left) and the ST Al2O3 (Figure 1c, right

• ) were 4.20 nm and 4.49 nm, respectively, that is, very similar to the starting Al surface roughness. The Al/Al2O3 stack was exploited for a mercury probe measurement of the dielectric capacitance. In particular, a metal–insulator–metal capacitor (MIM) is defined by the Al/Al2O3 stack from one side and