Mechanism of silica–lysozyme composite formation unravelled by in situ fast SAXS

• Tomasz M. Stawski,
• Daniela B. van den Heuvel,
• Rogier Besselink,
• Dominique J. Tobler and
• Liane G. Benning

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 182–197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.17

• inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) and proteins in aqueous media is of paramount interest for colloid chemistry. In particular, the interactions between silica (SiO2) NPs and lysozyme (LZM) have attracted attention, because LZM is well-known to adsorb strongly to silica NPs, while at the same time preserving its

• interactions are the key to understand the crystallisation of biominerals in living organisms (e.g., in bone formation), and to manufacture better functional materials [11][12][13][14][15]. In particular, composites of amorphous silica (SiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) and lysozyme (LZM) have attracted attention

• bridge between silica NPs, leading to aggregation and flocculation and thus to large silica NP–LZM composites. In the SiO2–LZM model system, a number of studies investigating the relationship between silica NP sizes, and adsorption modes of lysozyme revealed a correlation between composite properties and

pH-mediated control over the mesostructure of ordered mesoporous materials templated by polyion complex micelles

• Emilie Molina,
• Mélody Mathonnat,
• Jason Richard,
• Patrick Lacroix-Desmazes,
• Martin In,
• Philippe Dieudonné,
• Thomas Cacciaguerra,
• Corine Gérardin and
• Nathalie Marcotte

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 144–156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.14

• 900 °C. The mass percentage of silica (% mass(SiO2)) was calculated from the residual mass at 900 °C. The EA of the hybrid materials was performed on an Interscience Flash EA 1112 series (Thermo Finnigan) instrument. The value of the mass percentage of OC (% mass (OC)) in the hybrid materials, %N

• ) of the as-synthesized silica network was determined by 29Si MAS-NMR spectroscopy using a Varian VNMRS 300MHz spectrometer. The typical Q4, Q3 and Q2 signals appearing respectively at −110 ppm (SiO2), −100 ppm (SiO3/2) and −90 ppm (SiO(OH)2) were deconvoluted, and the areas were used for calculating D

• the extent of electrostatic complexation and hydrogen bonding, were determined from the chemical mass compositions of DHBC (wt % DHBC), oligochitosan (OC) (wt % OC) and silica (wt % SiO2) obtained by elemental analysis and thermogravimetric data after drying of the hybrid materials. The silica

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

• surface morphology, with preferable erosion of hills as compared with valleys [6], which also results in the smoothing of the surface [7]. Sputtering by an argon cluster beam has been studied for many pure metals (Cu, Ag, Au, W, Pt, Ni) and their alloys, semiconductors (Si and SiC), and insulators (SiO2

Threshold voltage decrease in a thermotropic nematic liquid crystal doped with graphene oxide flakes

• Mateusz Mrukiewicz,
• Krystian Kowiorski,
• Paweł Perkowski,
• Rafał Mazur and
• Małgorzata Djas

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 71–78, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.7

• nanoparticles of MgO and SiO2 [6]. Here, the effect was caused by the reduction of the order parameter S. The concentration-dependent enhancement of the electro-optic response was observed for Ti and TiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in NLC [7][8]. The significant effect of ferroelectric Sn2P2S6 on the threshold

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

• stress-driven artificial hair sensor. The fabrication process is subdivided into the following main steps: Depositing functional material layers: The flow sensor is based on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate which is made up of a 400 μm silicon wafer, a 2 μm thick silicon dioxide (SiO2) insulation

• the cantilever beams (300 nm etching depth). Subsequently, anisotropic back side wet etching with a potassium hydroxide (KOH) 28% solution at 85 °C creates two cavities underneath the cantilever beams (400 μm etching depth). The SiO2 insulating layer acts as an etching barrier. Next, a hydrofluoric

• acid (HF) back side wet etching step removes the SiO2 layer (2 μm etching depth). By performing a last KOH top side wet etching, the exposed (U-shaped) silicon device layer around the cantilevers is removed (2 μm etching depth). Due to the residual stress in the material, the released SiN/Si bilayer

Zn/F-doped tin oxide nanoparticles synthesized by laser pyrolysis: structural and optical properties

• Florian Dumitrache,
• Iuliana P. Morjan,
• Elena Dutu,
• Ion Morjan,
• Claudiu Teodor Fleaca,
• Monica Scarisoreanu,
• Alina Ilie,
• Marius Dumitru,
• Cristian Mihailescu,
• Adriana Smarandache and
• Gabriel Prodan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 9–21, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.2

• values. A clear optical behavior influence of the presence of carbon layers on tin dioxide can be observed for the SnO2@C and SnO2@SiO2@C nanostructured microspheres (C symbolizing here reduced graphene oxide, rGO) reported in [53], where the UV–vis spectra show a clear increase in absorbance (mostly in

• the visible domain, but also in the 320–400 nm UV zone) when compared with pure SnO2. Consequently, the resulting bandgap values diminished from 3.6 eV in pure SnO2 down to 3.2 eV for both SnO2@SiO2@C and SnO2@C samples [53]. A similar behavior can also be supposed for our carbon-containing tin oxide

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

• nm) were deposited or grown over the whole sample surface. Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) shells were prepared using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method, polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) shells by spin coating, and silicon dioxide (SiO2) shells by plasma sputtering deposition (PSD). The signature of each

• to produce samples that lack a surface matrix layer without influencing the initial properties of the interphase. Therefore, it would be more realistic to compare samples that model nanodielectrics with and without an interphase. Approach 2: PS + 50 nm SiO2 and PS + 100 nm Al2O3 + 50 nm SiO2 In the

• second approach, the comparison was between model nanodielectric samples without (PS + 50 nm SiO2) and with an interphase (PS + 100 nm Al2O3 + 50 nm SiO2) in which the matrix thickness was kept constant (Figure 3). To this aim, matrix deposition required a technique that allows the precise control of the

Colloidal chemistry with patchy silica nanoparticles

• Pierre-Etienne Rouet,
• Cyril Chomette,
• Laurent Adumeau,
• Etienne Duguet and
• Serge Ravaine

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2989–2998, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.278

• calculated based on a minimum of 500 nanoparticles per batch using the following equation: where and are the number-average and the weight-average diameter, respectively, and ni is the number of particles of diameter Di. Synthesis of the Au@SiO2 nanoparticles Gold nanoparticles of 14 ± 2 nm were prepared

• by the citrate-reduction method reported by Turkevich [29]. SiO2 coating was carried out after surface functionalization of the gold nanoparticles by using a PEG-SH (Mw = 5000) aqueous solution in a similar manner as described in [23]. The surface modification allowed for the replacement of the

Co-intercalated layered double hydroxides as thermal and photo-oxidation stabilizers for polypropylene

• Qian Zhang,
• Qiyu Gu,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Pinggui Tang,
• Dianqing Li and
• Yongjun Feng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2980–2988, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.277

• functional additives have attracted increasing attention for their wide applications in polymers [7]. Organic anti-aging species have been immobilized onto inorganic supports (e.g., carbon nanotubes, SiO2, graphene oxide) to produce inorganic–organic composites with higher migration resistance [8][9][10

Size limits of magnetic-domain engineering in continuous in-plane exchange-bias prototype films

• Alexander Gaul,
• Daniel Emmrich,
• Timo Ueltzhöffer,
• Henning Huckfeldt,
• Hatice Doğanay,
• Johanna Hackl,
• Muhammad Imtiaz Khan,
• Daniel M. Gottlob,
• Gregor Hartmann,
• André Beyer,
• Dennis Holzinger,
• Slavomír Nemšák,
• Claus M. Schneider,
• Armin Gölzhäuser,
• Günter Reiss and
• Arno Ehresmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2968–2979, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.276

• were approximated from the density values of pure metals using with x being the mole fraction, x = n/100. The SRIM compound correction was deactivated for all layers except SiO2. Simulations were performed using the monolayer collision mode for 2 × 106 helium ions with a kinetic energy of 15 keV

Ternary nanocomposites of reduced graphene oxide, polyaniline and hexaniobate: hierarchical architecture and high polaron formation

• Claudio H. B. Silva,
• Maria Iliut,
• Christopher Muryn,
• Christian Berger,
• Zachary Coldrick,
• Vera R. L. Constantino,
• Marcia L. A. Temperini and
• Aravind Vijayaraghavan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2936–2946, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.272

• smooth monolayer rGO particles, which are partially restacked when deposited on the Si/SiO2 substrate. The AFM images of the rGO/PANI nanocomposite show similar flake dimensions (ca. 25 μm) as the rGO-25 sample, and no granular particles were observed, as reported for PANI aggregates [36]. On the other

• prepared by spincoating the dispersions of rGO, rGO/PANI and rGO/PANI/hexNb (1.0 mg·mL−1 total concentration) on Si/SiO2 substrates at 3000 rpm (300 rpm·s−1 acceleration, 90 s). In order to properly compare the AFM images, processing was performed with the aid of WSxM software (version 4.0 Beta 7.0) [69

Site-controlled formation of single Si nanocrystals in a buried SiO₂ matrix using ion beam mixing

• Xiaomo Xu,
• Thomas Prüfer,
• Daniel Wolf,
• Hans-Jürgen Engelmann,
• Lothar Bischoff,
• René Hübner,
• Karl-Heinz Heinig,
• Wolfhard Möller,
• Stefan Facsko,
• Johannes von Borany and
• Gregor Hlawacek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2883–2892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.267

• + or Ne+ ion beam mixing of Si into a buried SiO2 layer followed by thermally activated phase separation. Binary collision approximation and kinetic Monte Carlo methods are conducted to gain atomistic insight into the influence of relevant experimental parameters on the Si NC formation process. Energy

• between the SiO2 layers and perpendicular to the incident Ne+ beam. Keywords: helium ion microscopy; ion beam mixing; Monte Carlo simulations; phase separation; single electron transistor; Introduction Silicon has been the main material in the semiconductor industry for almost all use cases with the

• particular, various groups have demonstrated the usage of a Si NC embedded in an SiO2 matrix as a Coulomb island for a single electron transistor (SET) device [7][8][9]. However, so far Si NC-based SET devices lack either the ability of room-temperature operation or the compatibility to complimentary metal

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

• combined with CVD. As another example, 5 nm GaN quantum dots were deposited by Crozier [86] by EBID from a specially tailored precursor resulting in high-quality uniform deposits on a thin film of Si/SiO2. Shimojo [87] demonstrated the deposition of self-standing nanorods, 10 nm in diameter, by electrons

• [88] when SiO2 and Si3N4 substrates were etched by electrons in the presence of XeF2 gas, whereas no etching was observed in the presence of either electrons or gas molecules alone. Since then, several reports and applications of gas-assisted etching using focused electron beams have appeared in the

• due to the increased SE yield from the nanowire sidewalls. The enhanced contrast of the nanowire edges seen in the SE image lends support to their theory. The advantage of working in an ESEM was the possibility of charge counteraction, allowing the use of insulating substrates like SiO2 that are

Nanoantenna structures for the detection of phonons in nanocrystals

• Alexander G. Milekhin,
• Sergei A. Kuznetsov,
• Ilya A. Milekhin,
• Larisa L. Sveshnikova,
• Tatyana A. Duda,
• Ekaterina E. Rodyakina,
• Alexander V. Latyshev,
• Volodymyr M. Dzhagan and
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2646–2656, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.246

• as high as 1 × 106. In our earlier papers we demonstrated SEIRA in the mid- and far-infrared for both organic molecules and inorganic NCs deposited on Au linear nanoantenna arrays fabricated on Si substrates by nanolithography [22][23]. The influence of a thin SiO2 layer (0–100 nm) beneath the

• nanoantenna arrays on the LSPR energy, as well as the LSP penetration depth into SiO2 were established [12]. We also showed that diffraction modes in linear Au nanoantenna arrays propagating along the Si surface and perpendicular to the nanoantennas [24] can be effectively employed for further enhancement of

• , differing in nanoantenna length and lateral periodicity, were fabricated on bare Si(001) substrates and substrates covered with SiO2 layers of different (5–100 nm) thicknesses by direct electron beam writing (Raith-150, Germany) as described earlier [23][31]. For H-shaped nanoantennas, additional Au

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