Mapping of integrated PIN diodes with a 3D architecture by scanning microwave impedance microscopy and dynamic spectroscopy

• Rosine Coq Germanicus,
• Peter De Wolf,
• Florent Lallemand,
• Catherine Bunel,
• Serge Bardy,
• Hugues Murray and
• Ulrike Lüders

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1764–1775, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.159

• accessible. Thereby, sMIM can be considered very useful for the failure analysis of several mechanisms, such as interface delineation, local diffusion, or conformity of filling layers. This methodology extends the possibilities to investigate the nanoscale electrical properties and can also solve issues

Absorption and photoconductivity spectra of amorphous multilayer structures

• Oxana Iaseniuc and
• Mihail Iovu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1757–1763, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.158

• explanation of our experimental data, as in the case for CIS-based solar cells with 1 < m < 2 (the transition part to m > 2) [16], is more complicated than that of the data of single-layer structures, because according to [16] the origin of the non-linear behavior may be the interface between the absorber and

Functional nanostructures for electronics, spintronics and sensors

• Anatolie S. Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1704–1706, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.152

• functional nanostructures consisting of alternating layers of ferromagnetic and superconducting materials – has been observed. Due to the proximity effect of superconductor/ferromagnetic (S/F) layers and Andreev reflection of Cooper pairs at the S/F interface, a number of new phenomena were first

Out-of-plane surface patterning by subsurface processing of polymer substrates with focused ion beams

• Serguei Chiriaev,
• Luciana Tavares,
• Vadzim Adashkevich,
• Arkadiusz J. Goszczak and
• Horst-Günter Rubahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1693–1703, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.151

• -plane features, at the nanoscale, of the pre-deposited films. Ion irradiation of the Au-coated samples results in delamination, bulging, and perforation of the Au film, which is attributed to the accumulation of gases from radiolysis at the film–substrate interface. The irradiation with Ne+ and Ga+ ions

• of the cells in rows 1 and 2 in Figure 4a and confirmed by AFM imaging in Figure 4b. These effects are attributed to the accumulation of gases from radiolysis at the Au film/PMMA interface and to the pressure that becomes, at a certain fluence and at certain places, sufficiently high to delaminate

The influence of an interfacial hBN layer on the fluorescence of an organic molecule

• Christine Brülke,
• Oliver Bauer and
• Moritz M. Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1663–1684, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.149

• independently by Schwarz and co-workers [31]. Large distances of the molecule with respect to the hBN and the metal interface are expected to be beneficial for the decoupling because the metal wave functions decrease exponentially into the vacuum. We have previously shown that the bonding situation between

• interactions at the interface [50] unlikely. Secondly, the strong dependence of the Raman intensity on the sample position (see above) conforms with the interpretation of a SERS effect related to local hot spots. However, the details of the related adsorption sites remains unclear. Since the SERS effect is

• observed for hBN on SiO2/Si [61], on Cu foils [62], and on other metal foils [63][64] for our samples of hBN/Cu(111). This is an obvious discrepancy, which we cannot explain based on our current data. It may, however, be related to the specific interface between hBN and the single crystalline Cu substrate

A self-powered, flexible ultra-thin Si/ZnO nanowire photodetector as full-spectrum optical sensor and pyroelectric nanogenerator

• Liang Chen,
• Jianqi Dong,
• Miao He and
• Xingfu Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1623–1630, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.145

• external power source. Working mechanism of a PENG based on p-Si/n-ZnO NWs heterojunctions To illustrate the working mechanism of self-powered PDs, schematic diagrams for the different conditions are presented in Figure 2. In the dark, a depletion layer is formed at the heterojunction interface due to

• -axis of the ZnO NWs (Figure 2, middle). Because the direction of the pyroelectric electric field (Epy) is the same as Eb and the barrier height decreases at the heterojunction interface due to the generation of a negative polarization potential, the total electric field in the depletion zone increases

PTCDA adsorption on CaF₂ thin films

• Philipp Rahe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1615–1622, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.144

• (111) surface with deposition on thicker CaF2/CaF1/Si(111) films. The identification of mostly single molecules on the CaF1/Si(111) interface layer is explained by the presence of atomic-size defects within this layer. Geometry-optimisation calculations using density functional theory reveal a geometry

• films on Si(111) requires the formation of a CaF1 interface layer as the first step. This interface layer is generated by an interface reaction between CaF2 and the silicon surface [28][29], where surface temperatures around 600 °C during deposition facilitate the dissociation of CaF2 to CaF1 and F. The

• dissociated fluorine atoms mostly desorb from the surface, likely in the form of SixF molecules [28][29]. Thicker CaF2 layers can then be grown stoichiometrically on the interface layer by successive CaF2 deposition. The CaF1/Si(111) surface has a (1 × 1) termination after etching the Si(111)-(7 × 7

Oxidation of Au/Ag films by oxygen plasma: phase separation and generation of nanoporosity

• Abdel-Aziz El Mel,
• Said A. Mansour,
• Mujaheed Pasha,
• Atef Zekri,
• Janarthanan Ponraj,
• Akshath Shetty and
• Yousef Haik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1608–1614, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.143

• metal/silver oxide interface. Based on the scanning transmission electron microscopy analysis coupled with energy dispersive X-ray mapping a mechanism was proposed based on solid-state diffusion and the Kirkendall effect to explain the different steps occurring during the oxidation process. Keywords

• film can be explained by the Kirkendall effect [24]. More precisely, as silver diffuses out of the alloy film, vacancies are injected into the metal/oxide interface and migrate within the fast-diffusing medium (represented here by the metal alloy in Figure 8c). As the oxidation process evolves

Walking energy harvesting and self-powered tracking system based on triboelectric nanogenerators

• Mingliang Yao,
• Guangzhong Xie,
• Qichen Gong and
• Yuanjie Su

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1590–1595, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.141

• totally different from its application in the previously reported work [34]. In the latter, the undulated elastic electrode configuration was utilized to harvest the impact from the water waves together with a solid–liquid interface generator to collect the electrostatic energy from the water body. In

Detecting stable adsorbates of (1S)-camphor on Cu(111) with Bayesian optimization

• Jari Järvi,
• Patrick Rinke and
• Milica Todorović

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1577–1589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.140

• have been studied extensively for applications in tissue engineering [2] and drug delivery [3]. To optimize the functional properties of these materials, we need detailed knowledge of their atomic structure. Of particular interest is the hybrid interface, which has a central role in defining the

• eliminates the human bias present in conventional structure search, in which the optimal structures are commonly estimated using chemical intuition. Efficient and unbiased structure search methods, such as BOSS, facilitate the study of complex hybrid interface structures. The acquired knowledge can be

• applied in the precision engineering of interface structures in functional materials to optimize their advantageous properties. Structure search with BOSS (blue) and DFT (red). (I) The PES is sampled with BOSS by calculating energies of atomic configurations with DFT to obtain the surrogate model of the

Controlling the electronic and physical coupling on dielectric thin films

• Philipp Hurdax,
• Michael Hollerer,
• Larissa Egger,
• Georg Koller,
• Xiaosheng Yang,
• Anja Haags,
• Serguei Soubatch,
• Frank Stefan Tautz,
• Mathias Richter,
• Alexander Gottwald,
• Peter Puschnig,
• Martin Sterrer and
• Michael G. Ramsey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1492–1503, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.132

• underlying metal [2][3]. As dielectric films can significantly reduce the work function, principally due to Pauli repulsion (pushback) at the metal interface, adsorbates of sufficiently high electron affinity (EA) will become negatively charged via tunneling from the underlying metal. This was predicted by

• )/Ag(100) work function after MgO film growth (ΦMgO) by changing the composition at the dielectric–metal interface without changing its surface [16][17][18][19], it has been recently shown that two distinct adsorption regimes exist [20]. On films with a high ΦMgO, all molecules in the ML remain neutral

• of 5A and 6P on 2 ML MgO films on Ag(100). The dashed line indicates the theoretical work function for a stoichiometric MgO–Ag(100) interface [36], and the shaded gray area indicates the most typical range of work functions obtained with MgO film growth under nominally identical conditions. The

Self-assembly and spectroscopic fingerprints of photoactive pyrenyl tectons on hBN/Cu(111)

• Domenik M. Zimmermann,
• Knud Seufert,
• Luka Ðorđević,
• Tobias Hoh,
• Sushobhan Joshi,
• Tomas Marangoni,
• Davide Bonifazi and
• Willi Auwärter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1470–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.130

• . The step-like increase in the dI/dV signal at ≈−350 meV (Figure 5b) reflected the electronic interface state of hBN/Cu(111) [25]. The support also accounted for the steadily increasing background contribution at negative bias voltages exceeding −2V (apparent in all spectra) [28][31][41]. A comparison

• interface showed that the electronic and optical gaps could be engineered by the number of substituents. This agrees with the DFT computations predicting a gap reduction when proceeding from unsubstituted pyrene cores to di- and tetrasubstituted derivatives. Applying an atomically thin hBN sheet as

Wafer-level integration of self-aligned high aspect ratio silicon 3D structures using the MACE method with Au, Pd, Pt, Cu, and Ir

• Mathias Franz,
• Romy Junghans,
• Paul Schmitt,
• Adriana Szeghalmi and
• Stefan E. Schulz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1439–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.128

• comparably as catalyst [23]. Chartier et al. [13] reported the etching mechanisms of the MACE process. The cathodic reaction is the reduction of H2O2 at the noble metal interface within an acidic solution. This reduction transfers an electron to the H+ ion and produces a hole (an electron vacancy) h+: The

• will be oxidised to the intermediate state SiO2, which is etched by HF. In this case no H2 is formed. Due to the high number of involved holes, this etching mechanism is strongly correlated to the interface of silicon and the noble metal. This regime will lead to a straight silicon etching profile

• underneath the noble metal [13]. The second mechanism involves two holes (n = 2). Per etched Si atom one H2 molecule is formed. This etching mechanism is not limited to the metal–silicon interface and occurs in a wider area around the noble metal. This etching mechanism mainly results in nanoporous sponge

Analysis of catalyst surface wetting: the early stage of epitaxial germanium nanowire growth

• Owen C. Ernst,
• Felix Lange,
• David Uebel,
• Thomas Teubner and
• Torsten Boeck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1371–1380, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.121

• interfacial potentials. For this purpose, the interfacial potentials were calculated by using three different methods: an empirical approach, in which the wetting angle was taken into account (“WA model”); a completely theoretical approach, in which the interface was described purely by van der Waals

• interactions (“vW model”); and a semi-empirical approach, in which R. H. Ewing's considerations towards the interfacial energy between a solid metal and its melted form were applied to study the substrate–fluid interface between different materials (“AE model”). A more detailed description of the three methods

Impact of fluorination on interface energetics and growth of pentacene on Ag(111)

• Qi Wang,
• Meng-Ting Chen,
• Antoni Franco-Cañellas,
• Bin Shen,
• Thomas Geiger,
• Holger F. Bettinger,
• Frank Schreiber,
• Ingo Salzmann,
• Alexander Gerlach and
• Steffen Duhm

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1361–1370, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.120

• . The F4PEN monolayer was essentially lying on Ag(111), and multilayers adopted π-stacking. Our study shed light not only on the F4PEN–Ag(111) interface but also on the fundamental adsorption behavior of fluorinated pentacene derivatives on metals in the context of interface energetics and growth mode

• adsorbate [9][10][11]. However, at such interfaces, vertical adsorption heights [12][13], interface dipoles (vacuum level shifts) [9][14] and consequently the energy level alignment [15][16][17] are affected by fluorination. Furthermore, fluorination can change the molecular multilayer growth [18][19][20

• ] since the signal from the interface was visible even when a nominal coverages corresponding to several layers was deposited. Stranski–Krastanov growth has been suggested for F4PEN on Cu(111) [63], and furthermore was supported by thickness-dependent XPS, where the relative intensity barely changed as

Atomic defect classification of the H–Si(100) surface through multi-mode scanning probe microscopy

• Jeremiah Croshaw,
• Thomas Dienel,
• Taleana Huff and
• Robert Wolkow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1346–1360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.119

Controlling the proximity effect in a Co/Nb multilayer: the properties of electronic transport

• Sergey Bakurskiy,
• Mikhail Kupriyanov,
• Nikolay V. Klenov,
• Igor Soloviev,
• Andrey Schegolev,
• Roman Morari,
• Yury Khaydukov and
• Anatoli S. Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1336–1345, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.118

• indexes that denote the materials, ξp is the coherence length, γBpq = RBA/ρpξp is the interface parameter, in which RBA is the resistance per square of the interface, and ρp is the resistivity of the material at the p-side of the boundary. Note that the boundary conditions at the S/F interface are written

• interface of the bulk semiconductor electrode, with thickness LS = 10ξS. In addition, we considered the proximity effect of an artificial ferromagnetic material (AFM), consisting of alternating thin superconducting (LS = 1ξS) and ferromagnetic layers, with an exchange energy of H = 10TC. In an AFM, every

Effect of localized helium ion irradiation on the performance of synthetic monolayer MoS₂ field-effect transistors

• Jakub Jadwiszczak,
• Pierce Maguire,
• Conor P. Cullen,
• Georg S. Duesberg and
• Hongzhou Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1329–1335, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.117

• , we find that irradiating the electrode–channel interface has a deleterious impact on charge transport when contrasted with irradiations confined only to the transistor channel. Keywords: 2D materials; contacts; defect engineering; helium ion microscope; ion beam doping; vacancies; two-dimensional

• the deposited metal–semiconductor contact interface. Recent work has shown that irradiation-induced heating of the electrode area can reverse majority carrier polarity in MoTe2 [31], while pre-treatment with a broad-beam argon ion source can decrease the contact resistance of Ni-MoS2 two-fold [32]. In

• -probe geometry. Thus, the absolute values of μ extracted here (approx. 1 cm2 V−1 s−1) are limited by the contact resistance between the gold and the MoS2 [40]. We now consider the effect of irradiating the metal–semiconductor interface. We treated two FETs within each IR regime. For one of the devices

Growth of a self-assembled monolayer decoupled from the substrate: nucleation on-command using buffer layers

• Robby Reynaerts,
• Kunal S. Mali and
• Steven De Feyter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1291–1302, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.113

• solution–solid interface. One of the ways to influence network formation at this interface is to physically decouple the self-assembled monolayer from the underlying substrate thereby removing the influence of the substrate lattice, if any. Here we show a systematic exploration of self-assembly of a

• typical building block, namely 4-tetradecyloxybenzoic acid at the 1-phenyloctane–graphite interface in the presence and in the absence of a buffer layer formed by a long chain alkane, namely n-pentacontane. Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), three different structural polymorphs were identified

• for 4-tetradecyloxybenzoic acid at the 1-phenyloctane–graphite interface. Surprisingly, the same three structures were formed on top of the buffer layer, albeit at different concentrations. Systematic variation of experimental parameters did not lead to any new network in the presence of the buffer

Structure and electrochemical performance of electrospun-ordered porous carbon/graphene composite nanofibers

• Yi Wang,
• Yanhua Song,
• Chengwei Ye and
• Lan Xu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1280–1290, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.112

• high frequency region and the low frequency region. The high-frequency region often exhibits a semicircular shape, and the arc of this section reflects the characteristics of the microscale interface between the electrolyte and the electrode [35]. The linear part of the low-frequency region generally

Role of redox-active axial ligands of metal porphyrins adsorbed at solid–liquid interfaces in a liquid-STM setup

• Thomas Habets,
• Sylvia Speller and
• Johannes A. A. W. Elemans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1264–1271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.110

• active acetate instead of chloride axial ligands, the currents remained absent. Keywords: manganese; porphyrins; redox reactions; scanning tunneling microscopy; solid–liquid interface; Introduction Manganese(III) porphyrins are well-known catalysts for the epoxidation of alkenes [1][2][3][4]. The

• single-molecule level, employing scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [7][8][9]. Since our aim was to stay as close as possible to the laboratory conditions at which catalysis takes place (typically in an organic solvent under ambient conditions), we carried out our STM studies at a solid–liquid interface

• at room temperature. We found that while the porphyrin catalyst MnTUPCl (tetrakis-meso-undecylporphyrin manganese(III) chloride, Figure 1a) is fully inert in n-tetradecane solution, it becomes catalytically active in the epoxidation of alkenes when it is adsorbed at the interface of a Au(111

Proximity effect in [Nb(1.5 nm)/Fe(x)]₁₀/Nb(50 nm) superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures

• Yury Khaydukov,
• Sabine Pütter,
• Laura Guasco,
• Roman Morari,
• Gideok Kim,
• Thomas Keller,
• Anatolie Sidorenko and
• Bernhard Keimer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1254–1263, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.109

• ][30][49][50]. Up to now there exists no explanation of such steps except for cases related to different imperfections of the sample (e.g., thickness gradient, crystal inhomogeneity, or oxide at S/F interface) [19][30][49][50]. However, a detailed study of our systems using various structural methods

Magnetic-field-assisted synthesis of anisotropic iron oxide particles: Effect of pH

• Andrey V. Shibaev,
• Petr V. Shvets,
• Darya E. Kessel,
• Roman A. Kamyshinsky,
• Anton S. Orekhov,
• Sergey S. Abramchuk,
• Alexei R. Khokhlov and
• Olga E. Philippova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1230–1241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.107

• (e.g., layered structures at the interface between a ferrofluid and a solid [56]), the magnetic field distribution throughout the sample volume was verified. By obtaining a magnetic field map it was demonstrated that the magnetic field intensity was slightly inhomogeneous across the sample volume (0.45

Gas sorption porosimetry for the evaluation of hard carbons as anodes for Li- and Na-ion batteries

• Yuko Matsukawa,
• Fabian Linsenmann,
• Maximilian A. Plass,
• George Hasegawa,
• Katsuro Hayashi and
• Tim-Patrick Fellinger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1217–1229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.106

• were gradually substituted by graphite in commercial LIB cells, and one of the main limitations in current SIB research, is the relatively high irreversible capacity due to the formation of a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer. The irreversible capacity is believed to originate from electrolyte

• homogeneously distributed, however, at much lower absolute numbers. Despite having the highest geometrical surface-to-volume ratio, RF-1600 is likely to have a much smaller electrode–electrolyte interface than the other samples. The H2O sorption measurements also reveal similar isotherm shapes for the HT

• SSAKr (RF-1600) turned out to have the smallest irreversible capacity, clearly showing that the Kr sorption data are not at all related to the electrode–electrolyte interface in the final battery. HTs with higher SSACO2 tended to show higher irreversible capacities, except HT1, in the case of lithium

High permittivity, breakdown strength, and energy storage density of polythiophene-encapsulated BaTiO₃ nanoparticles

• Adnanullah Khan,
• Amir Habib and
• Adeel Afzal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1190–1197, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.103

• nanoparticles, but they noticed that breakdown strength of the composite was critically affected at a high concentration of filler due to free charge accumulation at the interface. Therefore, to improve breakdown strength and energy storage density of BTO, we propose the design of polythiophene (PTh

• breakdown strength of BTO-polymer composites is considerably reduced after increasing the BTO content to 30–40 wt % because of the free-charge accumulation at the interface of BTO and polymer [10]. We believe that core–shell structure of BTO-PTh nanoparticles and good interfacial compatibility between the

• two phases prevent the free-charge accumulation at the interface and, therefore, improve the breakdown strength. Furthermore, in situ oxidative polymerization of PTh on BTO surfaces allows for the inclusion of 90 wt % BTO, which results in a high dielectric constant. This means that the tremendous