Template based precursor route for the synthesis of CuInSe₂ nanorod arrays for potential solar cell applications

• Mikhail Pashchanka,
• Jonas Bang,
• Niklas S. A. Gora,
• Ildiko Balog,
• Rudolf C. Hoffmann and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 868–874, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.98

• unique ability for independent adjustment of light absorption (by nanowire length) and charge separation (by nanowire diameter). Nanowire-based photovoltaic layers will allow the fabrication of low-cost small size energy devices with economical use of materials. Very recently, Schoen et al. reported the

• VLS synthesis of CuInSe2 nanowires (by Cu impregnation of In2Se3 nanowires) and the construction of a single-nanowire CIS/CdS core–shell device [4]. However, the authors estimated the efficiency of their solar cell to be below 1%, and the construction of a larger scale device with this approach still

A highly pH-sensitive nanowire field-effect transistor based on silicon on insulator

• Denis E. Presnov,
• Sergey V. Amitonov,
• Pavel A. Krutitskii,
• Valentina V. Kolybasova,
• Igor A. Devyatov,
• Vladimir A. Krupenin and
• Igor I. Soloviev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 330–335, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.38

• , Moscow 119991, Russia Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Moscow 125047, Russia 10.3762/bjnano.4.38 Abstract Background: An experimental and theoretical study of a silicon-nanowire field-effect transistor made of silicon on insulator by CMOS-compatible methods is presented. Results: A maximum

• approach does not yield to the one of sensors built in bottom-up approaches. This provides a good background for the development of CMOS-compatible probes with primary signal processing on-chip. Keywords: charge/field sensor; field-effect transistor; nanowire; pH sensor; silicon-on-insulator

• ; Introduction Over the past decade experimental and theoretical studies of semiconductor nanowire field-effect transistors (NW FET) made of silicon on insulator (SOI) have been of great interest to researchers. The large surface-to-volume ratio of the nanowire allows one to create extremely sensitive charge

High-resolution electrical and chemical characterization of nm-scale organic and inorganic devices

• Pierre Eyben

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 318–319, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.35

• FETs, nanowire T-FETs, etc.) are being progressively introduced. These new materials are mainly introduced due to their increased mobility (to boost the processing speed of the devices), and the new architectures are required to reduce the junction leakage (and hence reduce the power consumption

Characterization and properties of micro- and nanowires of controlled size, composition, and geometry fabricated by electrodeposition and ion-track technology

• Maria Eugenia Toimil-Molares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 860–883, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.97

• , including investigations on electrical resistivity, surface plasmon resonances, and thermal instability. Keywords: electrodeposition; etched ion-track membrane; finite-size effects; heavy ion irradiation; nanowire; radiation-induced nanostructures; Introduction During the past decade, nanowires have

• crystallinity of the nanostructures [7][8][9]. The investigation of size effects requires methods to synthesize nanowires under controlled conditions and with tailored characteristics. Moreover, to characterize physical and chemical properties at the single-nanowire level requires appropriate techniques. In the

• in the fabrication of etched ion-track membranes and electrodeposition of nanowires. Section 2 includes results on the compositional and crystallographic characterization of nanowires of various materials including metals, semimetals and semiconductors. The different nanowire morphologies attained by

Pure hydrogen low-temperature plasma exposure of HOPG and graphene: Graphane formation?

• Baran Eren,
• Dorothée Hug,
• Laurent Marot,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Marcin Kisiel,
• Roland Steiner,
• Dominik M. Zumbühl and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 852–859, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.96

• playground for physicists and engineers, particularly as a prospect for two-dimensional electronic applications. Nanowire [7] or transistor concepts consisting of only graphene and graphane could be realized. Another possible application is based on its characteristics in terms of hydrogen storage. It has a

Highly ordered ultralong magnetic nanowires wrapped in stacked graphene layers

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Jean-Luc Duvail,
• Eric Gautron,
• Wei Xu,
• Chang-Hwan Choi,
• Benoit Angleraud,
• Agnès Granier and
• Pierre-Yves Tessier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 846–851, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.95

• observed uniaxial magnetic anisotropy field oriented along the nanowire axis is an indication that the shape anisotropy dominates the dipolar coupling between the wires. We further show that the thermal treatment induces a decrease in the coercivity of the nanowire arrays. This reflects an enhancement of

• the quality of the nickel nanowires after annealing attributed to a decrease of the roughness of the nickel surface and to a reduction of the defect density. This new type of graphene–ferromagnetic-metal nanowire appears to be an interesting building block for spintronic applications. Keywords

• stacking shells is an elegant way to combine the unique properties of these two materials [20][21][22][23]. In addition, similar to a polymeric layer covering a magnetic nanowire [7], and considering the efficient protection of a single graphene layer [24], the stacked graphene layers (i.e., the shell

Pinch-off mechanism in double-lateral-gate junctionless transistors fabricated by scanning probe microscope based lithography

• Farhad Larki,
• Arash Dehzangi,
• Alam Abedini,
• Ahmad Makarimi Abdullah,
• Elias Saion,
• Sabar D. Hutagalung,
• Mohd N. Hamidon and
• Jumiah Hassan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 817–823, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.91

• schematically presented in Figure 3a. In accordance with the fabricated structure, the simulated structure also consists of a nanowire, two wires as lateral gates, and four square pads as source, drain, and gate contacts. The complete structure sits on a 145 nm ideal oxide. The origin in all simulation results

• recombination through deep defect levels in the gap. As is shown in Figure 3b, for ease of explanation in future references, the nanowire between the source and the drain contacts is divided into three different zones, labeled as XI, XII, and XIII, with lengths of 2 µm, 200 nm, and 2 µm, respectively. In Figure

• when the device is turned on [20]. By increasing the drain voltage, a high electric field in the drain extension creates a depletion area in zone XIII. At sufficiently high electric field, full depletion of the nanowire in the drain extension acts as a buffer and prevents the drain electric field from

Paper modified with ZnO nanorods – antimicrobial studies

• Mayuree Jaisai,
• Sunandan Baruah and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 684–691, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.78

• nanowire growth [26]. In Figure 5 we have schematically represented the possible hydrogen bonding of the hydroxyl ions with the oxygen atoms on the surface of the ZnO nanoparticles. In order to test the attachment of the nanorods on the paper substrate, air was allowed to pass through the paper at a

Ordered arrays of nanoporous gold nanoparticles

• Dong Wang,
• Ran Ji,
• Arne Albrecht and
• Peter Schaaf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 651–657, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.74

• more attention due to their potential applications in plasmonics [1][2], magnetic memories [3], DNA detection [4], and catalytic nanowire growth [5]. Nanoporous gold is very interesting for application in catalysis [6][7], for sensors [8], for actuators [9][10], and as electrodes for electrochemical

Directed deposition of silicon nanowires using neopentasilane as precursor and gold as catalyst

• Britta Kämpken,
• Verena Wulf,
• Norbert Auner,
• Marcel Winhold,
• Michael Huth,
• Daniel Rhinow and
• Andreas Terfort

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 535–545, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.62

• well as the hexagonal pattern visible in the latter indicate the presence of the cubic Si lattice. The influence of the gas flow on the nanowire deposition was investigated by varying it between 0.1 and 1.0 L/min. In all cases NW growth was observed. At the lower flow limit, the length and diameter of

Radiation-induced nanostructures: Formation processes and applications

• Michael Huth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 533–534, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.61

• , or in the form of focused electron beams following a maskless approach for pattern definition in a radiation-sensitive resist, also commonly known as electron beam lithography. Examples of this are found in this Thematic Series covering the topics of selected-area silicon nanowire growth by the vapor

P-wave Cooper pair splitting

• Henning Soller and
• Andreas Komnik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 493–500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.56

• other than . Summary of the possible charge-transfer processes in a superconductor–ferromagnet beam splitter. The superconductor (blue) and the two ferromagnets (red, assumed to be fully polarized) are coupled via a quantum dot, which is realized by an InAs nanowire (brown). The polarization is

Functionalised zinc oxide nanowire gas sensors: Enhanced NO₂ gas sensor response by chemical modification of nanowire surfaces

• Eric R. Waclawik,
• Jin Chang,
• Andrea Ponzoni,
• Isabella Concina,
• Dario Zappa,
• Elisabetta Comini,
• Nunzio Motta,
• Guido Faglia and
• Giorgio Sberveglieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 368–377, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.43

• ) sensor toward particular target gases in the environment. In this study the effect of an adsorbed organic layer on the dynamic response of zinc oxide nanowire gas sensors was investigated. The effect of ZnO surface functionalisation by two different organic molecules, tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane

• . Exposure of the nanowire sensors to the oxidising gas NO2 produced a significant and reproducible response. ZnO and THMA-coated ZnO nanowire sensors both readily detected NO2 down to a concentration in the very low ppm range. Notably, the THMA-coated nanowires consistently displayed a small, enhanced

• response to NO2 compared to uncoated ZnO nanowire sensors. At the lower concentration levels tested, ZnO nanowire sensors that were coated with THMA-capped ZnO nanoparticles were found to exhibit the greatest enhanced response. ΔR/R was two times greater than that for the as-prepared ZnO nanowire sensors

Ultraviolet photodetection of flexible ZnO nanowire sheets in polydimethylsiloxane polymer

• Jinzhang Liu,
• Nunzio Motta and
• Soonil Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 353–359, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.41

• normally exposed to an oxygen atmosphere to achieve high performance in UV photodetection. In this work we present results on a UV photodetector fabricated using a flexible ZnO nanowire sheet embedded in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a gas-permeable polymer, showing reproducible UV photoresponse and

• enhanced photoconduction. PDMS coating results in a reduced response speed compared to that of a ZnO nanowire film in air. The rising speed is slightly reduced, while the decay time is prolonged by about a factor of four. We conclude that oxygen molecules diffusing in PDMS are responsible for the UV

• adsorption and desorption of oxygen molecules [4]. In vacuum, ZnO nanowires show a prolonged UV photoresponse time and lowered responsivity [5]. So far, many UV photosensors have been made from ZnO one-dimensional nanostructures with various configurations, for sensing elements, such as single-nanowire

Direct-write polymer nanolithography in ultra-high vacuum

• Woo-Kyung Lee,
• Minchul Yang,
• Arnaldo R. Laracuente,
• William P. King,
• Lloyd J. Whitman and
• Paul E. Sheehan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 52–56, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.6

• found that monolayer-by-monolayer control of the film thickness, as previously established under nitrogen, is also possible under UHV. Figure 2 shows two polymer nanowire lines written at different speeds. Assuming a thickness of 2.6 nm for each PDDT monolayer as previously determined by XRD [14], the

X-ray spectroscopy characterization of self-assembled monolayers of nitrile-substituted oligo(phenylene ethynylene)s with variable chain length

• Hicham Hamoudi,
• Ping Kao,
• Alexei Nefedov,
• David L. Allara and
• Michael Zharnikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 12–24, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.2

• [12][13][14][15][16][17][18], in-wire junctions [9], and cross-nanowire junctions [19]. For most of these measurements the molecular wires were assembled on a conductive substrate, serving as the bottom electrode, by using self-assembled monolayer (SAM) methods. For this purpose, oligomeric chains

Approaches to nanostructure control and functionalizations of polymer@silica hybrid nanograss generated by biomimetic silica mineralization on a self-assembled polyamine layer

• Jian-Jun Yuan and
• Ren-Hua Jin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 760–773, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.84

• transformation [7]. Silica nanowire films can be fabricated by catalyst-promoted vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) or solid–liquid–solid (SLS) processes under high temperature conditions, where metallic nanoparticles such as gold, gallium, and tin as catalysts are generally used to improve nanowire nucleation and growth

• crystalline self-assembly on substrates, we also synthesized an ultrathin silica-nanowire-based surface, which demonstrated the feasible modulation of the hierarchical nanostructure and surface morphology [34]. In comparison, the modulation of the nanostructure and surface morphology of nanoribbon-based

• -quality nanograss surface composed of a nanowire-based network structure, with a film thickness of about 300 nm. This is different to those films formed by using hot LPEI solution in either pure water or water–methanol (3:7 v/v), both of which tended to form LPEI@silica with a ribbon nanostructure and

Lifetime analysis of individual-atom contacts and crossover to geometric-shell structures in unstrained silver nanowires

• Christian Obermair,
• Holger Kuhn and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 740–745, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.81

• contacting atoms by analogy with the “magic” configurations in metal cluster. In geometric shells the free energy is lowered by the change of surface energy when completing a layer of atoms on the nanowire facets, which is also known from cluster physics [20][21]. Both the electronic- and the geometric-shell

• effects and finally accomplishing the crossover to the filling of complete geometric shells corresponding to crystallographic facets of the nanowire. A detailed lifetime analysis for selected contacts helps us to obtain a detailed understanding of the correlation between the physics of quantized

• quantization. Due to the proportionality of (G/G0)1/2 to the contact radius, this equidistant sequence corresponds to an increase in equidistant steps in the contact radius of the nanowires. This, in turn, can be explained by a subsequent filling of geometric shells with atoms around the contacting nanowire

Distinguishing magnetic and electrostatic interactions by a Kelvin probe force microscopy–magnetic force microscopy combination

• Miriam Jaafar,
• Oscar Iglesias-Freire,
• Luis Serrano-Ramón,
• Manuel Ricardo Ibarra,
• Jose Maria de Teresa and
• Agustina Asenjo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 552–560, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.59

• an MFM probe) as the bias voltage was varied between ±1.5 V. The vertical profiles measured on the Co nanowire (black line) and on the substrate (red line) are shown in Figure 2c. Notice the parabolic dependence of the frequency shift versus voltage, which corresponds to an electrostatic interaction

Formation of precise 2D Au particle arrays via thermally induced dewetting on pre-patterned substrates

• Dong Wang,
• Ran Ji and
• Peter Schaaf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 318–326, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.37

• nanoparticles, due to their wide range of potential applications in plasmonics [1][2], magnetic memories [3], DNA detection [4], and catalysis for nanowire and nanofiber growth [5][6]. Nanoparticle arrays are typically fabricated either by chemical processes based on self-assembly or by lithography based

A collisional model for AFM manipulation of rigid nanoparticles

• Enrico Gnecco

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 158–162, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.19

• ] and In the case (b): and In general, both core and cap collisions occur along each scan line and only numerical solutions are possible. However, a complete solution can be found in two important cases: The manipulation of a nanosphere of radius a (L = 0) and that of a thin nanowire of length L (a = 0

• α0 is the impact angle between tip and sphere (with the exception of the very first collision) and is given by In the case of a nanowire, the average direction of motion is well-defined and is given by the sim­ple formula [6] The wire oscillates perpendicularly to this direction: Thus, Equation 7 and

• the force F is directed along the x axis and the total force acting on the particle will be oriented as in tapping mode only if the static friction f can balance the component of F along the island profile. Angle of motion θ of a nanosphere (solid curve) and a nanowire (dashed curve) as a function of