Tailoring of physical properties of RF-sputtered ZnTe films: role of substrate temperature

• Kafi Devi,
• Usha Rani,
• Arun Kumar,
• Divya Gupta and
• Sanjeev Aggarwal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 333–348, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.25

• leads to a reduction in microstrain and dislocation density. The optical studies using UV–vis–NIR spectroscopy reveal that the transmittance of films increases with substrate temperature. Further, the shift in transmittance threshold towards lower wavelengths with substrate temperature indicates that

• intensity [26]. To investigate the effect of substrate temperature on peak broadening of ZnTe films, various structural parameters including crystallite size, microstrain, and dislocation density were calculated corresponding to the most prominent peak. The crystallite size (D) was calculated using

• Scherrer’s formula [27] where λ = 1.5406 Å is the X-ray wavelength and β denotes the full width at half maximum (in radians). The microstrain (ε) is calculated using the formula [27] The dislocation density (Δ) is calculated using the formula [27] where D represents the crystallite size. The calculated

The role of a tantalum interlayer in enhancing the properties of Fe₃O₄ thin films

• Hai Dang Ngo,
• Vo Doan Thanh Truong,
• Van Qui Le,
• Hoai Phuong Pham and
• Thi Kim Hang Pham

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 1253–1259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.101

• interlayer has an effect on the crystallization of the Fe3O4 film. XRD patterns provide further information about the structural properties of a material, such as lattice constant (a), dislocation density (δ), and microstrain (ε). Bragg’s law was used to calculate the d-spacing of the Fe3O4(311) and Fe3O4

• (400) peaks [26][27]: where n is the order of diffraction (n = 1) and λ is the X-ray wavelength (Cu Kα, λ = 1.5406 Å). The lattice constant a of the three Fe3O4 samples was determined by [27][28]: The microstrain in these samples can be calculated from the lattice constant a above by using the

• following relation [27][28]: where a0 is the lattice parameter of bulk Fe3O4 (a0 = 8.397 Å [29]). Microstrain is a crucial factor that helps to analyze the existence of strain and deformation in thin films [30][31]. The d-spacing values of the Fe3O4(311) and Fe3O4(400) peaks of sample 3 are 2.514 and 2.085

The microstrain-accompanied structural phase transition from h-MoO₃ to α-MoO₃ investigated by in situ X-ray diffraction

• Zeqian Zhang,
• Honglong Shi,
• Boxiang Zhuang,
• Minting Luo and
• Zhenfei Hu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 692–700, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.55

• octahedron layers in the ⟨100⟩α direction. The octahedron layers are bonded by van der Waals interactions in the ⟨010⟩α direction, crystalizing into the α-MoO3 structure. Keywords: microstrain; molybdenum oxide; phase transition; thermal expansion; Introduction Molybdenum exhibits oxidation states ranging

• temperature of 378.5 °C and ends at a temperature of 443.1 °C, assuming that 2% α-MoO3 can be detected by X-ray diffraction. Figure 1b illustrates the relationship between the isotropic microstrain Δd/d of h-MoO3 and the temperature. From 300 to 370 °C, the microstrain of h-MoO3 decreased from 1443.4 to

• 1147.0 (↓ 20.5%), indicating the improvement of the crystallinity of the h-MoO3 phase through annealing. When h-MoO3 transformed into α-MoO3 (i.e., the mass fraction increased from 2.2% to 86%), the corresponding microstrain increased sharply from 1147.0 to 2246.9 (↑ 95.9%), indicating that the h-MoO3→α

Non-stoichiometric magnetite as catalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of phenol and 2,6-dibromo-4-methylphenol – a new approach in water treatment

• Joanna Kisała,
• Anna Tomaszewska and
• Przemysław Kolek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1531–1540, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.126

• instrument constraints and the sample (all types of crystal imperfections would lead to an additional widening of the XRD peak due to microstrain, resulting in a lower apparent crystal size value). This means that the Scherrer equation is an extremely rough estimate of the minimal size of crystals whereas

Interaction of Te and Se interlayers with Ag or Au nanofilms in sandwich structures

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Marek Trzcinski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Wojciech Pacuski and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 238–246, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.22

• the nano-alloy formation, but more likely due to the microstrain on metal grains. Keywords: diffusion; gold; microstrain; nanocrystallinity; permittivity; plasmonics; segregation; selenium; silver; tellurium; Introduction In recent years, there has been growing interest in layered, sandwich-like

• silver and gold are strong. Increasing density profiles as well as large deviations of the lattice constant from sample to sample suggest an anisotropic microstrain on the metal grains. This would indicate the greatest number of nanocrystalline structure defects – and thus the greatest number of lattice

• have a negative effective mass along one direction (X–Γ) and the carriers at the L-point have a negative effective mass along two opposite directions (L–X and L–K), the microstrain on metal grains would directly translate into changes in the intensity of the interband transitions and possible shifts in

Growth model and structure evolution of Ag layers deposited on Ge films

• Arkadiusz Ciesielski,
• Lukasz Skowronski,
• Ewa Górecka,
• Jakub Kierdaszuk and
• Tomasz Szoplik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 66–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.9

• contribution from the change in the grain size and the contribution from the microstrain in the silver grains. However, microstrain should significantly alter the intensities of both interband transition peaks in the silver permittivity spectra, which we do not observe. Furthermore, atomic force microscopy

Pyrite nanoparticles as a Fenton-like reagent for in situ remediation of organic pollutants

• Carolina Gil-Lozano,
• Elisabeth Losa-Adams,
• Alfonso F.-Dávila and
• Luis Gago-Duport

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 855–864, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.97

• calculate the average values of crystallite size and microstrain (according to the Scherrer method [35]). Experimental set-up Kinetic experiments were conducted in stirred glass reactors under ambient conditions (i.e., open to atmosphere and at room temperature [22 ± 2 °C]; K-type thermocouple). Pyrite

Effect of deposition temperature on the structural and optical properties of chemically prepared nanocrystalline lead selenide thin films

• Anayara Begum,
• Amir Hussain and
• Atowar Rahman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 438–443, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.50

• diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical absorption studies. The structural parameters, such as the lattice constant (a), crystallite size (D), dislocation density (ρ) and microstrain (ε) were evaluated from the XRD spectra. It was found that average

• crystallite size, as calculated from Scherrer’s formula, increased from 23 to 33 nm as the deposition temperature was varied from 303 to 343 K. The dislocation density and microstrain were found to vary inversely with the crystallite size, whereas the lattice constant was found to increase with an increase in

• microstrain (ε) The dislocation density (δ) was calculated from Williamson and Smallman’s formula [20] where “n” is a factor, which when equal to unity gives the minimum dislocation density, and “D” is the average crystallite size. The average microstrain (ε) developed in the as-prepared PbSe films was

Mesoporous MgTa₂O₆ thin films with enhanced photocatalytic activity: On the interplay between crystallinity and mesostructure

• Jin-Ming Wu,
• Igor Djerdj,
• Till von Graberg and
• Bernd M. Smarsly

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 123–133, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.13

• nonporous films. Owing to the lower overall crystallinity of the investigated material and a high background in some of the analyzed XRD patterns, the microstrain part in the size-microstrain procedure within the Rietveld refinement was not refined and was kept to the instrumental values determined by the

Investigation on structural, thermal, optical and sensing properties of meta-stable hexagonal MoO₃ nanocrystals of one dimensional structure

• Angamuthuraj Chithambararaj and
• Arumugam Chandra Bose

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 585–592, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.62

• to the bulk compound. The observed broadening is a convolution of the instrumental error, the reduced crystallite size and the existence of microstrain in the synthesized sample product. The overall contribution to the broadening is expressed as βhkl = βins + βsize + βstrain, where βins is the full

• –A plot for the as-synthesized sample. To determine the crystallite size and strain, a graph was plotted with (4sinθhkl)2 along the X-axis and (βhklcosθhkl)2 along the Y-axis. From the linear fit, the crystallite size (Dhkl) was extracted from the Y-intercept and the microstrain (εhkl) from the slope

• ppm was prepared and used in the gas chamber for sensor measurement. XRD pattern of as-synthesized h-MoO3. W–A plot of h-MoO3 for crystallite size and microstrain estimation. FT-IR spectrum of as-synthesized h-MoO3. Low and high magnification SEM micrographs of h-MoO3. TEM micrograph of the one