Au–Si plasmonic platforms: synthesis, structure and FDTD simulations

• Anna Gapska,
• Marcin Łapiński,
• Paweł Syty,
• Wojciech Sadowski,
• Józef E. Sienkiewicz and
• Barbara Kościelska

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2599–2608, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.241

• eV, is close to SiO2. The second peak can be explained by presence of very thin film of native SiO2 formed on Si substrates in air. During the heating of Au films on Si at temperatures above the eutectic temperature, an intermetallic thin layer of Au–Si is formed on the contact interface. However, it

• is usually a monoatomic layer that could not be observed with XPS [2][25]. The formation of such a layer would be impeded by the SiO2 film formed on the Si surface, which would also explain the absence of Au–Si bonds. On the other hand, research results show that the presence of SiO2 is not an

Pattern generation for direct-write three-dimensional nanoscale structures via focused electron beam induced deposition

• Lukas Keller and
• Michael Huth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2581–2598, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.240

• the centered beam position for both Me3CpMePt(IV) and HCo3Fe(CO)12. The polar/azimuthal angles were −60°/45° and −60°/−39°, respectively. All depositions were done on p-doped Si wafers with thermally grown SiO2 of 200 nm thickness. Au/Cr contacts, as used for some deposition experiments, were grown by

• , the pattern files for B and D with the bpPAA. Besides the fact that both A and C do not comply as nicely to the target geometry as B and D, B and D are also taller due to more efficient use of precursor. All four structures were deposited in high-resolution mode on SiO2 employing the platinum

• vertices on both, the SiO2 substrate and gold electrodes on a different height). 4.3 Advanced shadow avoiding algorithm The advanced approach to avoid shadowing effects is based on considering the shadow effect caused by the small amount of deposit generated by any given DE on all subsequent DEs. In order

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

• perform the laser surface texturing. The last polishing step was performed with a colloidal SiO2 suspension (OP-U from Struers, Willich, Germany). The entire sample preparation process yielded a scratch-free surface, having a surface roughness of Ra < 0.01 µm as determined by optical profilometry

Non-agglomerated silicon–organic nanoparticles and their nanocomplexes with oligonucleotides: synthesis and properties

• Asya S. Levina,
• Marina N. Repkova,
• Nadezhda V. Shikina,
• Zinfer R. Ismagilov,
• Svetlana A. Yashnik,
• Dmitrii V. Semenov,
• Yulia I. Savinovskaya,
• Natalia A. Mazurkova,
• Inna A. Pyshnaya and
• Valentina F. Zarytova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2516–2525, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.234

• formation of TiO2·PL–DNA nanocomposites [1][2]. Silica nanoparticles can also be used as vehicles to deliver nucleic acid fragments into cells [3][4]. SiO2 nanoparticles bearing amino groups on the surface were shown to bind plasmid DNA, allowing the nanoparticles to penetration into cells, and even nuclei

• , and to protect DNA against intracellular nucleases [5][6]. The prospect of using SiO2 nanoparticles as nonviral nanovectors to deliver plasmid DNA and their lower toxicity compared to the widely used transfection agent lipofectamine was shown in previous work [6]. It was demonstrated that SiO2

• nanoparticles with a diameter of 20–77 nm can easily penetrate into cellular cytoplasm and nuclei [7]. Polylysine-modified nanoparticles appeared to be nontoxic upon oral administration in mice, which opens the possibility for their wide application [8]. Under physiological conditions, SiO2 nanoparticles are

Nanocellulose: Recent advances and its prospects in environmental remediation

• Katrina Pui Yee Shak,
• Yean Ling Pang and
• Shee Keat Mah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2479–2498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.232

• properties in nanocomposites such as Fe3O4@SiO2@cellulose nanocomposite and amino-functionalized magnetic cellulose nanocomposite grafted with glycidyl methacrylate followed by reaction with ethylenediamine [89]. Furthermore, a 7 wt % NaOH/12 wt % urea aqueous solvent was found useful for regenerating Cr(VI

SERS active Ag–SiO₂ nanoparticles obtained by laser ablation of silver in colloidal silica

• Cristina Gellini,
• Francesco Muniz-Miranda,
• Alfonso Pedone and
• Maurizio Muniz-Miranda

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2396–2404, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.224

• , 41125 Modena, Italy Center for Molecular Modeling, Ghent University, Technologiepark 903, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium 10.3762/bjnano.9.224 Abstract Highly stable Ag–SiO2 nanoparticle composites were first obtained by laser ablation of a silver target in an aqueous colloidal dispersion of silica and

• , this is the first investigation of this kind of preparation of a Ag–SiO2 colloidal nanocomposite and its application in SERS measurements. Experimental The silver target was purchased from Aldrich (0.5 mm thickness, 99.9% purity), as well as 2,2’-bipyridine (purity 99%). Colloidal silica (Aldrich

• , Ludox TM-40, pH ≈9 at 25 °C, NaCl content: 0.03 wt %) was diluted with distilled water in order to have a sample with 10 wt % as SiO2 content. Laser ablation of silver in colloidal silica was performed with the fundamental wavelength of a Q-switched Nd:YAG ns-pulsed laser (Quanta System G90-10: rep

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

• , which has been reported both for Si, SiO2 and NiTi [29][30]. However, as the plasma treatment takes place after the inkjet printing process, a change in roughness will not influence the droplet size, but might influence further functionalization steps. The droplet boundary description was set in the

Magnetism and magnetoresistance of single Ni–Cu alloy nanowires

• Andreea Costas,
• Camelia Florica,
• Elena Matei,
• Maria Eugenia Toimil-Molares,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Andrei Kuncser,
• Victor Kuncser and
• Ionut Enculescu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2345–2355, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.219

• membranes. Photolithography was employed for obtaining interdigitated metallic electrode systems of Ti/Au onto SiO2/Si substrates and subsequent electron beam lithography was used for contacting single nanowires in order to investigate their galvano-magnetic properties. The results of the magnetoresistance

• successively in chloroform and dichloromethane. Further, by ultrasonication, the nanowires were transferred in ultrapure isopropanol and placed on n++-doped SiO2/Si substrates having interdigitated metallic electrodes of Ti/Au (10/90 nm). The electrodes were obtained combining photolithography (using an EVG

• obtained from single nanowire measurements is shown in the upper inset. (a) Ni–Cu alloy nanowires placed on SiO2/Si substrates between the interdigitated metallic electrodes obtained by photolithography; (b) alignment of the SiO2/Si substrate with the sample holder of the microscope; (c) the sample covered

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

• , Australia 10.3762/bjnano.9.213 Abstract We have fabricated two-dimensional photonic crystals (PhCs) on the surface of Si nanocrystal-rich SiO2 layers with the goal to maximize the photoluminescence extraction efficiency in the normal direction. The fabricated periodic structures consist of columns ordered

• that the light-emission from SiNCs embedded in SiO2 layers with the value of the peak refractive index of approx. 1.6 can be increased by structuring the smooth surface of the layer into a 2D PhC with a square lattice symmetry [26]. Recently, we have also shown that SiNC-rich layers with higher packing

• PhCs were fabricated as follows: The initial SiNC-rich/SiO2 plate was first cut into three identical pieces with the sizes of 1 cm × 2 cm. The surface of the samples was coated with 120 nm of an electron-sensitive polymer (PMMA). Then on each piece, six periodic structures (1.3 mm × 1.3 mm) were “drawn

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

• experiment that usn-Si can experience a considerable energy offset of electronic states by embedding it in silicon dioxide (SiO2) or silicon nitride (Si3N4), whereby a few monolayers (MLs) of SiO2 or Si3N4 are enough to achieve these offsets. Our findings present an alternative to conventional impurity

• states (DOS) when embedded in SiO2 or Si3N4. We use further h-DFT results of a Si-nanowire (NWire) covered in SiO2 and Si3N4 to examine the device behaviour of an undoped Si-NWire FET based solely on CMOS-compatible materials (e.g., Si, SiO2, Si3N4) using the nonequilibrium Green’s function (NEGF

• requires the use of NCs to keep the h-DFT computation effort practicable; NWires with more than 1 ML dielectric embedding are beyond the feasible computation effort at the level of accuracy we use. As an ultimate theoretical test, we present h-DFT results of two Si-NCs, one embedded in SiO2 and the other

Optimization of the optical coupling in nanowire-based integrated photonic platforms by FDTD simulation

• Nan Guan,
• Andrey Babichev,
• Martin Foldyna,
• Dmitry Denisov,
• François H. Julien and
• Maria Tchernycheva

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2248–2254, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.209

• attention [6][10]. SiN elements can be embedded into SiO2 [10], or alternatively, SiN suspended membranes can be used to enhance the performance [11][12][13]. However, for both approaches, to generate and detect light, active elements need to be co-integrated with the SiN platform. Thanks to their direct

• a diameter of 1 µm. It is positioned on a SiO2 layer on top of a Si substrate. The thickness of the SiO2 layer is varied to find the minimum thickness necessary to avoid light coupling from the platform components to the absorbing Si substrate. Following the experimental realization of [30], an

• for materials used in the simulations are: n (GaN) = 2.562, n (SiO2) = 1.557, n (Si) = 5.57 + i0.387, n (SiNx) = 2.07. The spin-on-glass SiOx was assumed to have a refractive index of n (SiOx) = 1.557. The presence of the InGaN quantum wells in the NW is neglected due to its nanometer dimensions and

Interaction-induced zero-energy pinning and quantum dot formation in Majorana nanowires

• Samuel D. Escribano,
• Alfredo Levy Yeyati and
• Elsa Prada

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2171–2180, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.203

• potential, taking into account the actual three-dimensional (3D) geometry as well as the effect of nearby metallic leads. We consider the geometry depicted in Figure 1a, where a nanowire of rectangular cross section lies on an insulating substrate (typically SiO2) and is contacted to a thin superconducting

Electrospun one-dimensional nanostructures: a new horizon for gas sensing materials

• Muhammad Imran,
• Nunzio Motta and
• Mahnaz Shafiei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2128–2170, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.202

• electrospun nanofibers as the sensing layer. These materials include: metal oxide (MOx) semiconductors (e.g., SnO2, TiO2, SiO2) [83][84], doped MOx semiconductors [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], composite materials made of MOx semiconducting materials (e.g., ZnO-In2O3) [86], conducting polymer-based gas sensors

Phosphorus monolayer doping (MLD) of silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates

• Noel Kennedy,
• Ray Duffy,
• Luke Eaton,
• Dan O’Connell,
• Scott Monaghan,
• Shane Garvey,
• James Connolly,
• Chris Hatem,
• Justin D. Holmes and
• Brenda Long

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2106–2113, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.199

• excess of 1 × 1019 cm−3 with minimal impact on surface quality. Hall effect data proved that reducing SOI dimensions from 66 to 13 nm lead to an increase in carrier concentration values due to the reduced volume available to the dopant for diffusion. Dopant trapping was found at both Si–SiO2 interfaces

• is necessary to achieve maximum dopant incorporation when carrying out P-MLD using ADP as the dopant molecule. SiO2 was chosen as capping material due to the poor diffusivity of P through SiO2, which would favour the preferential diffusion of P into the silicon substrate. Without the protection of a

• surface oxidation had taken place during this process despite the care taken to avoid oxidation. The Si 2p peak shown in Figure 6 has a sub-peak at approximately 104 eV, which is a result of the presence of SiO2. The presence of even this small amount of SiO2 has the ability to inhibit P diffusion into

Localized photodeposition of catalysts using nanophotonic resonances in silicon photocathodes

• Evgenia Kontoleta,
• Sven H. C. Askes,
• Lai-Hung Lai and
• Erik C. Garnett

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2097–2105, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.198

• plasmas with 110 nm diameter SiO2 spheres being used as etch mask. Tuning the ratio of the HBr/O2 plasmas allowed for vertical nanowires with variable sidewall tapering angle (see details in Experimental section and Figure S1, Supporting Information File 1). Vertical nanocones (height ≈ 720 nm, top

• rinsed with deionized water. Then 2–3 μL of 110 nm diameter SiO2 spheres dispersed in ethanol were drop-cast on the clean silicon samples and annealed for 1 min at 60 °C on a hot plate. The samples were etched with a combination of plasmas (PlasmaPro 100 Cobra ICP Etch). First Cl2 (20 sec, 50 sccm, HF

• SiO2 formed during the etching procedure, rinsed with water, dipped in hot piranha solution for 20 min and rinsed one more time with water. The last step (hot piranha solution) proved necessary to obtain a smooth coating of the structures with TiO2, probably due to the increase of the hydrophilicity

Recent highlights in nanoscale and mesoscale friction

• Andrea Vanossi,
• Dirk Dietzel,
• Andre Schirmeisen,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Marcin Kisiel,
• Shigeki Kawai and
• Nicola Manini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1995–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.190

• friction was recently observed for micro- and macroscale systems based on incommensurate sliding between graphene-covered spheres or “nanoscrolls” and substrates [76][77]. Also a decrease of friction shear stress with increasing number of layers has been observed for graphene over Si/SiO2 in vacuum

• , nitrogen, and air [78]. In addition, the shear strength and the interface adhesion energy for graphene on Si/SiO2 was proven to always exceed those of the graphene/Ni(111) interface [78]. The weakly lattice-mismatched graphite/hBN interface is also predicted to be promising for ultra-low-friction

Synthesis of a MnO₂/Fe₃O₄/diatomite nanocomposite as an efficient heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst for methylene blue degradation

• Zishun Li,
• Xuekun Tang,
• Kun Liu,
• Jing Huang,
• Yueyang Xu,
• Qian Peng and
• Minlin Ao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1940–1950, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.185

• , a broad peak at around 22.5° is observed due to the amorphous structure of SiO2. No other obvious diffraction peaks are detected, suggesting that after the washing, the raw diatomite is highly pure. Six peaks at 29.9°, 35.3°, 43.2°, 53.3°, 57.00° and 62.4° are observed in the pattern of Fe3O4

•  6d, the O 1s scan can be fitted into three symmetric peaks located at 532.39, 530.49 and 529.54 eV. Among them, the peaks at 532.9 and 530.49 eV are assigned to the oxygen in SiO2 and Fe3O4, and the peak located at 529.54 eV is ascribed to lattice oxygen (Mn–O–Mn bond) in MnO2 [34]. Therefore, the

A differential Hall effect measurement method with sub-nanometre resolution for active dopant concentration profiling in ultrathin doped Si_1−xGe_x and Si layers

• Richard Daubriac,
• Emmanuel Scheid,
• Hiba Rizk,
• Richard Monflier,
• Sylvain Joblot,
• Rémi Beneyton,
• Pablo Acosta Alba,
• Sébastien Kerdilès and
• Filadelfo Cristiano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1926–1939, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.184

• the top Si/BOX interfaces in correspondence of the maximum slope of the oxygen signal. The position of the SiO2/Si interfaces determined in this way (1.2 nm and 1.6 nm below the surface for the DSA- and RTA-annealed wafers, respectively) are in perfect agreement with those found by STEM-EDX

• dopant activation at the semiconductor surface. The calculated differential Hall values are finally presented in Figure 10. The obtained values are plotted together with arsenic concentration profiles measured by SIMS, by taking into account the actual position of the SiO2/top Si interface (cf. Figure 8

Synthesis of hafnium nanoparticles and hafnium nanoparticle films by gas condensation and energetic deposition

• Irini Michelakaki,
• Nikos Boukos,
• Dimitrios A. Dragatogiannis,
• Spyros Stathopoulos,
• Costas A. Charitidis and
• Dimitris Tsoukalas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1868–1880, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.179

• constant HfO2 and its compounds are used in the field of microelectronics for the manufacturing of integrated circuits and more particularly as gate dielectrics of metal-oxide semiconductor transistors having replaced the traditional thermally grown SiO2 dielectric [34]. More recently, HfO2 was also

SO₂ gas adsorption on carbon nanomaterials: a comparative study

• Deepu J. Babu,
• Divya Puthusseri,
• Frank G. Kühl,
• Sherif Okeil,
• Michael Bruns,
• Manfred Hampe and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1782–1792, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.169

• with a total length of 5–20 μm. SWNTs have a diameter of ca. 1.5 nm, a length of 1–5 µm and were produced by using CVD with a purity of >95%. Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) were synthesized in our lab over a Si/SiO2 (600 nm) substrate in a quartz furnace using water-assisted chemical

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

• material, such new Fe3O4 antidot arrays are of interest for the future development of nano-scale biosensors. Experimental Figure 1 shows the outline of the AFIR process. Si(100) wafers with a native layer of SiO2 were coated with hematite (Fe2O3) in a Savannah S100 ALD reactor from Ultratech operated at

• to manufacture square and hexagonal antidot arrays of magnetic oxides among other geometries, and with variable lattice parameters. Outline of the AFIR process. Si(100) wafers with a native layer of SiO2 were coated with Fe2O3. Antidot arrays were directly etched in the continuous films of Fe2O3

Controllable one-pot synthesis of uniform colloidal TiO₂ particles in a mixed solvent solution for photocatalysis

• Jong Tae Moon,
• Seung Ki Lee and
• Ji Bong Joo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1715–1727, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.163

• oxide particles, such as SiO2, ZrO2 and TiO2 that have well-controlled characteristics [15][30][31]. We have previously reported a reproducible sol–gel coating method for producing SiO2@TiO2 core–shell nanostructures in the presence of a surfactant in pure ethanol solution [7][8]. In addition, another

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

• deposited on SiO2 by sulfurization. The quality of the obtained NSs was analyzed by scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy, and Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The as-grown NSs were then successfully transferred to the substrates using a wet chemical etching method. The

• ]. Herein, we report on the FE properties of densely packed and uniformly distributed vertically aligned 2D MoS2 NSs, well adhered to the substrate. These NSs were synthesized by double sulfurization of sputter-deposited Mo films on Si (300 nm SiO2/Si) substrates. The FE properties assessment is carried out

• on the NSs transferred onto a conducting fluorine-tin-oxide (FTO) substrate. Experimental Sample preparation The NSs were grown on SiO2/Si substrates via double sulfurization of a sputter-deposited 50 nm Mo film using an ambient-pressure CVD technique. Flushing of the quartz tube using Ar gas stream

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles as sulfur encapsulator for high-performance lithium/sulfur batteries

• Yan Zhao,
• Zhengjun Liu,
• Liancheng Sun,
• Yongguang Zhang,
• Yuting Feng,
• Xin Wang,
• Indira Kurmanbayeva and
• Zhumabay Bakenov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1677–1685, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.159

• Li/S batteries [5]. Another popular strategy to reduce polysulfides from dissolution is using metal oxides, such as TiO2 [6], ZnO [7], MnO2 [8], and SiO2 [9], as the additives or coating layer in the S-cathode. This is because metal oxides can provide strong binding sites with S and reduce the

Evaluation of replicas manufactured in a 3D-printed nanoimprint unit

• Manuel Caño-García,
• Morten A. Geday,
• Manuel Gil-Valverde,
• Xabier Quintana and
• José M. Otón

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1573–1581, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.149

• , SiO2). If the resulting thickness is critical, it is advisable to spin-coat the material following the material guidelines [12]. NOA-81: It is one of the most popular optical adhesives of the NOA family (Norland). This material is also UV-curable and solvent-free. The nominal curing wavelength is 355