Advanced atomic force microscopy techniques V

• Philipp Rahe,
• Ilko Bald,
• Nadine Hauptmann,
• Regina Hoffmann-Vogel,
• Harry Mönig and
• Michael Reichling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 54–56, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.6

• characterization of defects in a single layer of graphene on iridium that were induced by rare-gas ion bombardment by using combined scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) measurements and NC-AFM [12]. The authors reveal that presumed monoatomic vacancies, as deduced from STM measurements alone, have rather

Effect of radiation-induced vacancy saturation on the first-order phase transformation in nanoparticles: insights from a model

• Aram Shirinyan and
• Yuriy Bilogorodskyy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 1453–1472, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.117

• , and other emerging nanotechnologies. When HDCMs are exposed to radiation, such as ion bombardment or exposure to high-energy radiation sources, defects (vacancies, interstitials, point defect clusters, voids, and interstitial loops) are created in the crystal lattice because of the displacement of

• , changes in the structural properties of Ni nanostructures due to ion bombardment have been reported in [15]. Interestingly, certain types of radiation ions have shown a positive effect on the crystal structure, leading to an increase in the degree of crystallinity after the austenitic annealing of defects

Unveiling the nature of atomic defects in graphene on a metal surface

• Karl Rothe,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 416–425, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.37

• Karl Rothe Nicolas Neel Jorg Kroger Institut für Physik, Technische Universität Ilmenau, D-98693 Ilmenau, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.15.37 Abstract Low-energy argon ion bombardment of graphene on Ir(111) induces atomic-scale defects at the surface. Using a scanning tunneling microscope, the two

• frequency shift [39][40]. Topographic STM and AFM data were processed using WSxM [41]. Results and Discussion Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy findings After gentle Ar+ ion bombardment, graphene-covered Ir(111) gives rise to STM images as depicted in Figure 1a. The periodic superstructure of

• in graphene on Ir(111) induced by rare-gas ion bombardment. Defects that are assigned to alleged monatomic vacancy sites by STM measurements represent an intact graphene lattice in AFM topographies. Possibly, a defect in the Ir(111) surface is the origin of the STM-derived contrast. The smallest

Investigating ripple pattern formation and damage profiles in Si and Ge induced by 100 keV Ar⁺ ion beam: a comparative study

• Indra Sulania,
• Harpreet Sondhi,
• Tanuj Kumar,
• Sunil Ojha,
• G R Umapathy,
• Ambuj Mishra,
• Ambuj Tripathi,
• Richa Krishna,
• Devesh Kumar Avasthi and
• Yogendra Kumar Mishra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 367–375, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.33

• . Channelling is an important process which has been heavily studied by Norlund et al. [24] and Hobler et al. [36]. Thus, in our studies, RBS-c plays a significant role in understanding the damage fractions in Si and Ge due to Ar+ ions. In the present work, 100 keV Ar+ ion bombardment was simultaneously

Ultralow-energy amorphization of contaminated silicon samples investigated by molecular dynamics

• Grégoire R. N. Defoort-Levkov,
• Alan Bahm and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 834–849, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.68

• . Keywords: angle dependency; argon; contamination; energy dependency; ion bombardment; low energy; molecular dynamics; silicon; simulations; water; Introduction Low-energy ion beams offer substantial improvements and possibilities to reduce the damage production on the surface of samples [1][2]. In recent

• during the Ar ion bombardment near the sample surface. Oxygen and silicon exhibit a particularly strong interaction [35][36], and partial charges contribute significantly to the bond energy. ReaxFF potentials can describe this phenomenon and allow one to simulate the response of the sample bombarded with

• ion bombardment. The Y axis is normalized to the density and given in a stacked representation. The intensity of the peaks describes the probability to find an atom at a given distance of a reference atom. Implantation depth of argon atoms for incidence angles of (a) 0°, (b) 30°, (c) 45°, (d) 60°, (e

Influence of water contamination on the sputtering of silicon with low-energy argon ions investigated by molecular dynamics simulations

• Grégoire R. N. Defoort-Levkov,
• Alan Bahm and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 986–1003, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.86

• sputtered largely depends on the incidence angle. This fraction is the largest for incidence angles between 70 and 80° defined with respect to the sample surface. Overall, it changes from 25% to 65%. Keywords: angle dependency; argon ions; contamination; focused ion beams; ion bombardment; low energy

• simulation of ion bombardment, allowing to cut down computation costs while maintaining a good fidelity to the charge distribution. Furthermore, we implemented a variable time step, which allowed us to control the variation in either position (with a limit from 0.01 to 0.1 Å) or energy (up to 0.4 eV) in

• diamond lattice is 2.358 Å. Figure 4 shows the distributions for both samples before ion bombardment. For the Si–Si bonds, the most probable bond length is at the correct length, but a significant number of bonds are in the 2.1 Å region. This can be explained by dimers appearing on top and bottom surfaces

Sputtering onto liquids: a critical review

• Anastasiya Sergievskaya,
• Adrien Chauvin and
• Stephanos Konstantinidis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 10–53, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.2

• the surface of the sputter target, whose temperature is gradually increasing because of ion bombardment, emits IR photons. This radiation is detected at the substrate location and contributes to an increase of the substrate surface temperature as well [43]. In the case of reactive sputtering

• kinetic energy, and coating properties (on solid substrates) are changed as compared to DCMS discharges. The film crystallinity can be promoted at lower growth temperatures, although sometimes, a too intense ion bombardment may lead to the amorphization of the material [68]. Because they are ionized, the

A review of defect engineering, ion implantation, and nanofabrication using the helium ion microscope

• Frances I. Allen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 633–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.52

• and the underlying substrate on the magnetic modification obtained. It was found that helium ion bombardment influenced the magnetic anisotropy in both layers of the structure, strongly reducing the saturation magnetization of the layer system. Moreover, the behavior observed correlated with both the

Influence of electrospray deposition on C₆₀ molecular assemblies

• Antoine Hinaut,
• Sebastian Scherb,
• Sara Freund,
• Zhao Liu,
• Thilo Glatzel and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 552–558, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.45

• are visible, see the arrow in the contrast-modified inset of Figure 3c and in part 3 of Supporting Information File 1. They are similar to the pits created after electron and ion bombardment [40][41][42][43] or low-temperature plasma exposure of such a surface [44]. Such defects are known to increase

Scanning transmission imaging in the helium ion microscope using a microchannel plate with a delay line detector

• Eduardo Serralta,
• Nico Klingner,
• Olivier De Castro,
• Michael Mousley,
• Santhana Eswara,
• Serge Duarte Pinto,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Gregor Hlawacek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1854–1864, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.167

• studied by detecting the light emitted from the sample during ion bombardment [8][9][10]. Moreover, compositional analyses using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) can be performed in the HIM with a lateral resolution of the order of 10 nm [11][12][13][14]. Transmission-mode imaging can further

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• surface. Experimental The experiments were performed with an STM operated in ultrahigh vacuum (10−9 Pa) and at low temperature (Pt(111) and graphene-covered Pt(111) at 5 K, Au(111) at 78 K). Pt(111) and Au(111) surfaces were cleaned by Ar+ ion bombardment and annealing. Graphene was epitaxially grown on

Adsorption behavior of tin phthalocyanine onto the (110) face of rutile TiO₂

• Lukasz Bodek,
• Mads Engelund,
• Aleksandra Cebrat and
• Bartosz Such

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 821–828, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.67

• prepared by repetitive cycles of Ar+-ion bombardment at an energy of 1 keV and subsequent annealing to a temperature of 700 °C. Tin phthalocyanine molecules (Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.) were thermally evaporated by using an effusion cell (Kentax GmbH). After prudent degassing, the deposition flux

Formation of nanoripples on ZnO flat substrates and nanorods by gas cluster ion bombardment

• Xiaomei Zeng,
• Vasiliy Pelenovich,
• Bin Xing,
• Rakhim Rakhimov,
• Wenbin Zuo,
• Alexander Tolstogouzov,
• Chuansheng Liu,
• Dejun Fu and
• Xiangheng Xiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 383–390, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.29

• parallel steps or ribs. The more ordered ripple formation on nanorods can be associated with the confinement of the nanorod facets in comparison with the quasi-infinite surface of the flat substrates. Keywords: cluster ion bombardment; gas cluster ion beam; surface ripples; ZnO nanorods; Introduction The

• al. predicting a remarkably defect-free ripple formation on the plane surface by ion bombardment of a binary material should also be noted [10]. In this theory, the composition change of the surface layer by the ion bombardment is discussed and a defect-free ripple formation of an elemental material

Fabrication and characterization of Si_1−xGe_x nanocrystals in as-grown and annealed structures: a comparative study

• Muhammad Taha Sultan,
• Adrian Valentin Maraloiu,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Jón Tómas Gudmundsson,
• Andrei Manolescu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Magdalena Lidia Ciurea and
• Halldór Gudfinnur Svavarsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1873–1882, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.182

• layers, the Ge films were crystalline when sputtered by the HiPIMS method due to the high electron density in the plasma (high power density). The higher electron density increases the ionization of Ge sputtered off the target, leading to a better quality of the film through ion bombardment. As described

Molecular attachment to a microscope tip: inelastic tunneling, Kondo screening, and thermopower

• Rouzhaji Tuerhong,
• Mauro Boero and
• Jean-Pierre Bucher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1243–1250, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.124

• tunneling microscope (Modified Createc LT-STM) equipped with a vector magnetic field of 1 T. As described in [21], the Au(111) single crystal was cleaned by repeated cycles of Ne+ ion bombardment followed by thermal annealing at 800 K. The MnPc molecules were evaporated from an Al2O3 crucible heated by

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

• . Keywords: exchange bias; helium ion microscopy; ion bombardment induced magnetic patterning; magnetic domains; magnetic nanostructures; Introduction Engineered magnetic domains with deliberately set magnetic properties and designed shapes in thin-film systems have proven to be useful in memory [1][2] and

• nanometers [25]. Local magnetic property modifications in thin films by narrow beams of light ions, in contrast, do not suffer from this drawback due to more localized energy deposition [35]. Currently patterning by kiloelectronvolt light ion bombardment is performed using shadow masks where the lateral

• electron microscopy (X-PEEM) and investigating the magnetic charge state of the DWs by magnetic force microscopy (MFM). The experiments have been corroborated by micromagnetic simulations. Results and Discussion The ion bombardment induced magnetic pattering of artificial domains in exchange-bias

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

• encouraging early work at Cambridge University and elsewhere [17][19] scanning ion beam lithography (SIBL) was largely ignored for several decades. This was in spite of the higher sensitivity of most resists under ion bombardment and the near absence of the proximity effect that plagues EBL. Backscattered

Controlling surface morphology and sensitivity of granular and porous silver films for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, SERS

• Sherif Okeil and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2813–2831, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.263

• . Etching of silver films by means of hydrogen plasma in an inductively coupled plasma system has also been previously observed and the reasons for this etching could be ion bombardment leading to physical sputtering together with chemical etching for which the formation of a silver dihydride anion (AgH2

• time. The formation of the holes can be mainly attributed to physical sputtering of silver due to ion bombardment. But at the same time there is a homogenous decrease in the thickness of the silver film, which would point to a chemical etching process that takes place over the whole area exposed to the

• nitrogen plasma treated silver film (Figure 3d) shows a slight decrease in film thickness compared to untreated silver films, which indicates minor etching by the nitrogen plasma mainly due to ion bombardment. A reasonable explanation for the restructuring of the silver surface, which leads to particle

High-throughput synthesis of modified Fresnel zone plate arrays via ion beam lithography

• Kahraman Keskinbora,
• Umut Tunca Sanli,
• Margarita Baluktsian,
• Corinne Grévent,
• Markus Weigand and
• Gisela Schütz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2049–2056, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.194

• under the ion bombardment [40][41]. Here, we follow a slightly different strategy that provides significantly higher resolution. The approach uses a single-pixel-single-pass exposure (SPSP-E) strategy for defining the positions of the open zones. In the SPSP-E strategy, (Figure 1d), it is possible to

Defect formation in multiwalled carbon nanotubes under low-energy He and Ne ion irradiation

• Santhana Eswara,
• Jean-Nicolas Audinot,
• Brahime El Adib,
• Maël Guennou,
• Tom Wirtz and
• Patrick Philipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1951–1963, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.186

• decrease of the G’ band intensity is also observed for 140 keV He+ irradiation, but not for 3 MeV H+ irradiation up to a fluence of 5 × 105 ions/cm2. Hence, low to high energy He irradiation causes more damage than MeV H+ ion bombardment [55]. TEM observations The BF-TEM images of the ion-irradiated

• analysis so that the Raman signal is purely due to ion bombardment without any possible contribution from electron irradiation associated with TEM imaging. SDTRIMSP simulations Simulations on He and Ne irradiation of the carbon nanotubes were carried out using the SDTRIMSP code [47] which is based on the

• simulation codes TRIM [60][61] and TRIDYN [62][63]. In addition to previous codes, SDTRIMSP includes the option to consider the outgassing of atoms in a sample [64]. This is required for the simulation of helium and neon ion bombardment of organic samples. The diffusion coefficients for the different noble

Synthesis of carbon nanowalls from a single-source metal-organic precursor

• André Giese,
• Sebastian Schipporeit,
• Volker Buck and
• Nicolas Wöhrl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1895–1905, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.181

• proposing that the initial graphene rolls up at defects. They suggested that these defects are due to ion bombardment in the PECVD process as well as due to temperature gradients on the substrate. This is a first indication for how the particle energy of the plasma species could influence the resulting CNW

Advances and challenges in the field of plasma polymer nanoparticles

• Andrei Choukourov,
• Pavel Pleskunov,
• Daniil Nikitin,
• Valerii Titov,
• Artem Shelemin,
• Mykhailo Vaidulych,
• Anna Kuzminova,
• Pavel Solař,
• Jan Hanuš,
• Jaroslav Kousal,
• Ondřej Kylián,
• Danka Slavínská and
• Hynek Biederman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2002–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.200

• larger (250 nm) as compared to the ones fabricated with the weaker magnetic field (30 nm). Apparently, the differences in intensity of ion bombardment should be manifested in the change of the plasma chemistry, although the exact reason for this interesting phenomenon is still not clear and requires

Intercalation of Si between MoS₂ layers

• Rik van Bremen,
• Qirong Yao,
• Soumya Banerjee,
• Deniz Cakir,
• Nuri Oncel and
• Harold J. W. Zandvliet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1952–1960, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.196

• performed with an Omicron STM-1 room-temperature scanning tunneling microscope in ultra-high vacuum (UHV). The UHV system is composed of three separate chambers: a load-lock chamber for a quick entry of new samples and STM tips, a preparation chamber with facilities for sample heating, ion bombardment and

Process-specific mechanisms of vertically oriented graphene growth in plasmas

• Subrata Ghosh,
• Shyamal R. Polaki,
• Niranjan Kumar,
• Sankarakumar Amirthapandian,
• Mohamed Kamruddin and
• Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1658–1670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.166

• and the VGNs; (ii) ion-bombardment generated defects; and (iii) lattice mismatch between the substrate and the nanographitic layer [54]. More importantly, it is noticed that the crystallite size is inversely proportional to the intrinsic residual stress. Stress decreases with the improvement in

• species, etching rate of carbon species by nascent H produced in the plasma and sputtering by highly energetic ion bombardment. Ion bombardment induced sputtering is negligible at lower ion energies and pronouncedly displaces C atoms from their stable position at higher ion energies [59]. The hydrogen

Adsorption and electronic properties of pentacene on thin dielectric decoupling layers

• Sebastian Koslowski,
• Daniel Rosenblatt,
• Alexander Kabakchiev,
• Klaus Kuhnke,
• Klaus Kern and
• Uta Schlickum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1388–1395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.140

• were generated by thermal evaporation of KCl at 653 K for 20 min. During this process, the substrates were kept at room temperature. The metal substrates (Au(111), Cu(111), Cu(110)) were cleaned by alternating sequences of Ar-ion bombardment and annealing at 843 K. The annealing temperature was reduced