Performance optimization of a microwave-coupled plasma-based ultralow-energy ECR ion source for silicon nanostructuring

• Joy Mukherjee,
• Safiul Alam Mollick,
• Tanmoy Basu and
• Tapobrata Som

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 484–494, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.37

• no reaction between the inert Ar ions and the Si atoms, ensuring the absence of a chemical aspect of pattern formation. However, the native silicon oxide layer is partially sputtered. This is also a key factor in generating surface instabilities. The surface morphology largely varies due to different

• -ion bombardment is a consequence of ion-induced instabilities on the surface by the interplay between sputtering and mass redistribution of surface atoms [52][53]. During ion bombardment, the sputtering of the native silicon oxide layer along with that of bulk silicon takes place. The rate of

• sputtering of silicon oxide and the elemental silicon is different, which leads to instabilities during bombardment and the development of nanopatterns on the surface. Further, the exposure of the nanopatterned silicon surface to air during optical measurement ensures the formation of non-uniform silicon

Correction: AFM-IR investigation of thin PECVD SiO_x films on a polypropylene substrate in the surface-sensitive mode

• Hendrik Müller,
• Hartmut Stadler,
• Teresa de los Arcos,
• Adrian Keller and
• Guido Grundmeier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 252–253, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.19

• /bjnano.16.19 Keywords: AFM-IR; polypropylene; surface-sensitive mode; silicon oxide; thin films; XPS; The authors regret that the acknowledgement in the publication is unfortunately not complete. The following sentence in the Funding section is missing: This work was supported by the German Research

Heterogeneous reactions in a HFCVD reactor: simulation using a 2D model

• Xochitl Aleyda Morán Martínez,
• José Alberto Luna López,
• Zaira Jocelyn Hernández Simón,
• Gabriel Omar Mendoza Conde,
• José Álvaro David Hernández de Luz and
• Godofredo García Salgado

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 1627–1638, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.128

• ; chemical reactions; flow dynamics; HFCVD; hot filament chemical vapor deposition; SiOx films; Introduction The growth of materials such as non-stoichiometric silicon oxide (SiOx) is an important step in semiconductor devices development. Control of deposition parameters determines the success of the

• Simulations Hypothesis Obtaining non-stoichiometric silicon oxide films in a HFCVD reactor is mainly based on two main heterogeneous reactions, which are the dissociation of atomic hydrogen and the reaction of atomic hydrogen with a solid source. The thermochemical study will allow us to obtain thermodynamic

• continuity, momentum, and heat transfer by the finite element method. Mathematical method and equations The complex growth of non-stoichiometric silicon oxide films in a HFCVD reactor involves different physics. For the description of the behavior of all systems, it is necessary to incorporate mathematical

Water-assisted purification during electron beam-induced deposition of platinum and gold

• Cristiano Glessi,
• Fabian A. Polman and
• Cornelis W. Hagen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 884–896, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.73

• orientation) with a native silicon oxide layer. Samples of 1 × 1 cm2 were used, on to which an array of annular patterns was lithographically defined, by laser lithography and etching using an SF6–O2 dry-etch, to facilitate location of the deposition areas. The substrates were roughly cleaned in acetone and

AFM-IR investigation of thin PECVD SiO_x films on a polypropylene substrate in the surface-sensitive mode

• Hendrik Müller,
• Hartmut Stadler,
• Teresa de los Arcos,
• Adrian Keller and
• Guido Grundmeier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 603–611, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.51

• /bjnano.15.51 Abstract Thin silicon oxide films deposited on a polypropylene substrate by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition were investigated using atomic force microscopy-based infrared (AFM-IR) nanospectroscopy in contact and surface-sensitive mode. The focus of this work is the comparison of

• signal of the substrate material could be significantly reduced. Even layers that are so thin that they could hardly be measured in the contact mode can be analyzed with the surface-sensitive mode. Keywords: AFM-IR; polypropylene; surface-sensitive mode; silicon oxide; thin films; XPS; Introduction

• sample excitation). However, it is much more flexible in the choice of the drive and detection frequencies, as only the mixing frequency needs to match a system resonance and not the individual frequencies themselves. Here, we use AFM-IR in the surface-sensitive mode to investigate thin silicon oxide

Determination of the radii of coated and uncoated silicon AFM sharp tips using a height calibration standard grating and a nonlinear regression function

• Perawat Boonpuek and
• Jonathan R. Felts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1200–1207, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.99

• standard purchased from Budget Sensor [15], the grate height pattern made of silicon oxide (SiO2) has a height of 20 nm, a grate distance of 2 µm, and a pitch distance of 5 µm on top of the silicon substrate. So, the height distance that the tip end can slide along is equal to the distance measured from

Isolation of cubic Si₃P₄ in the form of nanocrystals

• Polina K. Nikiforova,
• Sergei S. Bubenov,
• Vadim B. Platonov,
• Andrey S. Kumskov,
• Nikolay N. Kononov,
• Tatyana A. Kuznetsova and
• Sergey G. Dorofeev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 971–979, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.80

• inclusions in Si wafers implanted with P+ ions and laser-annealed at temperatures of 450–850 °C [2]. Recently, NPs of elemental compositions close to SiP and SiP2 have been observed in thermal annealing products of non-stoichiometric silicon oxide containing high amounts of phosphorus introduced during the

• phosphorus in the less degraded regions of the SP550 sample (by an estimated factor of up to 1.3). When the silicon oxide shell was taken into account, the results of elemental analysis were found compatible with the formation of the Si3P4 compound. Regardless of the performed calculations of phosphorus

Formation of nanoflowers: Au and Ni silicide cores surrounded by SiO_x branches

• Feitao Li,
• Siyao Wan,
• Dong Wang and
• Peter Schaaf

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 133–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.14

• to developing different kinds of nanofabrication methods during the past decades. For example, silicon oxide (SiOx) nanostructures can be grown by the catalyzing effect of Au nanoparticles based on the vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism [1][2][3][4]. Au–SiOx nanoflowers consisting of Au nanoparticles

Analytical and numerical design of a hybrid Fabry–Perot plano-concave microcavity for hexagonal boron nitride

• Felipe Ortiz-Huerta and
• Karina Garay-Palmett

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1030–1037, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.90

• λ0/4n thickness layer of hBN (n = 1.72) was positioned on top of a 15-pair layer DBR with tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) and silicon oxide (SiO2) as the high- and low-index layers, respectively, on a (HL)15 configuration to ensure an electric field antinode at the surface of the hBN layer, making the hBN

Exploring the fabrication and transfer mechanism of metallic nanostructures on carbon nanomembranes via focused electron beam induced processing

• Christian Preischl,
• Linh Hoang Le,
• Elif Bilgilisoy,
• Armin Gölzhäuser and
• Hubertus Marbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 319–329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.26

• suitable combination of substrate and precursor is a prerequisite, that is, the substrate must be chemically altered by the electron beam and the precursor molecule must be susceptible to the altered site. Substrates that are known to fulfill the prerequisite are silicon oxide [10][12], rutile TiO2(110

Nanomechanics of few-layer materials: do individual layers slide upon folding?

• Ronaldo J. C. Batista,
• Rafael F. Dias,
• Ana P. M. Barboza,
• Alan B. de Oliveira,
• Taise M. Manhabosco,
• Thiago R. Gomes-Silva,
• Matheus J. S. Matos,
• Andreij C. Gadelha,
• Cassiano Rabelo,
• Luiz G. L. Cançado,
• Ado Jorio,
• Hélio Chacham and
• Bernardo R. A. Neves

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1801–1808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.162

• exfoliated onto a silicon oxide substrate (blue shades). During the exfoliation/deposition processes, such a talc flake folds over itself, creating a well-defined folded edge, shown in orange shades. Figure 1b shows a schematic drawing of the morphology of the fold in Figure 1a. This is the morphology of the

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

• theoretical, (ii) empirical, and (iii) semi-empirical models. The formation of nanometre-sized gold particles on silicon and silicon oxide substrates is investigated in detail. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of the three models are elucidated, the different substrates used are compared, and the

• chalcopyrites [11], or precursors for complex structures, such as nanowires [12]. Silicon, germanium and silicon oxide nanowires, for example, can be formed on different substrates by using metal catalysts in the form of tin, indium or gold nanodroplets [13][14][15]. Such nanometre-sized one-dimensional

• the formation of the nanostructures. The wetting behaviour of gold deposited either on silicon or silicon oxide wafers was studied. The property of gold to form a layer, droplets, or particles on silicon or silicon oxide was theoretically described and experimentally demonstrated by ultrahigh vacuum

Integrated photonics multi-waveguide devices for optical trapping and Raman spectroscopy: design, fabrication and performance demonstration

• Gyllion B. Loozen,
• Arnica Karuna,
• Mohammad M. R. Fanood,
• Erik Schreuder and
• Jacob Caro

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 829–842, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.68

• index of silicon nitride, silicon oxide and water is chosen as nSi3N4 = 2.00, nSiO2 = 1.45, and nH20 = 1.33, respectively. To obtain the characteristics of the emitted beams, we follow the simulation approach of our previous work [6]. Figure 2a shows the longitudinal profiles of the energy density U of

Quantitative determination of the interaction potential between two surfaces using frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy

• Nicholas Chan,
• Carrie Lin,
• Tevis Jacobs,
• Robert W. Carpick and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 729–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.60

• contributes to the long-range interaction between tip and sample. Best-fit potential parameters were determined for the silicon oxide–diamond system and the spatial variance of these parameters was examined over different locations across the diamond sample. Experimental Frequency modulation atomic force

• method of disks, whereby the tip is approximated as a stack of thin axisymmetric disks normal to the flat diamond surface (Figure 1b). Using these additional data, an LJ F(z) curve was generated by assuming that the silicon oxide–carbon interaction is described by the 6-12 LJ pair potential. This was

• for the silicon oxide–carbon system is a smooth function with a single localized force minimum. Therefore, several extracted F(z) curves were disregarded due to multiple localized minima in the force relation. This resulted in four locations in the 8 × 8 grid experiment being disregarded. LJ F(z

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

• template removal, which also affected the shell structure limiting their biological applications [25]. The use of silicon oxide (SiO2) templates is quite common, however, dissolution using hazardous hydrofluoric acid (HF) limits its application. It is mostly used with strong PE systems but has also been

Integration of sharp silicon nitride tips into high-speed SU8 cantilevers in a batch fabrication process

• Nahid Hosseini,
• Matthias Neuenschwander,
• Oliver Peric,
• Santiago H. Andany,
• Jonathan D. Adams and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2357–2363, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.226

• ., silicon, silicon nitride and silicon oxide), polymer cantilevers have gained attention due to their ease of fabrication, their versatility [15][16][17][18][19] and their potential for fabricating low spring constant cantilevers [20]. For instance, the microfabrication process of SU8 cantilevers has a high

• pits. The diameter of the circular openings defines the final height of the tips and can be tuned. (ii) The LSNT mask is removed in HF 50%. Afterwards, a 400 nm wet silicon oxide layer and a 100 nm LSNT layer are deposited on the wafer. The 400 nm silicon oxide layer improves the tip sharpness by

• nonlinear growth of the silicon oxide, the oxide layer becomes thinner at the inside corner of the pyramidal moulds than at the mould faces. The silicon oxide layer forms a concave curvature on each face of the four-sided pyramidal moulds, which is then projected onto the subsequent LSNT layer. (iii) The

Ion mobility and material transport on KBr in air as a function of the relative humidity

• Dominik J. Kirpal,
• Korbinian Pürckhauer,
• Alfred J. Weymouth and
• Franz J. Giessibl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2084–2093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.203

• to be taken into account that measurements at such low pressure rather relate to the outer atmosphere than to ambient conditions. However similar observations have been made by Asay et al. under ambient conditions, who showed on silicon oxide the growth of three monolayers up to RH = 30%, an

Growth dynamics and light scattering of gold nanoparticles in situ synthesized at high concentration in thin polymer films

• Corentin Guyot,
• Philippe Vandestrick,
• Ingrid Marenne,
• Olivier Deparis and
• Michel Voué

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1768–1777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.172

• the optical response of the film. Other causes of the local changes of the optical response such as temperature-induced thickness and refractive index change of the substrate can also be neglected. The thermal expansion coefficient of silicon oxide (0.24 × 10−6 K−1) and its thermo-optic coefficient dn

High-temperature resistive gas sensors based on ZnO/SiC nanocomposites

• Vadim B. Platonov,
• Marina N. Rumyantseva,
• Alexander S. Frolov,
• Alexey D. Yapryntsev and
• Alexander M. Gaskov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1537–1547, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.151

• region contains three components at 100.6 (Si1), 103.0 (Si2), and 106.3 (Si3) eV (Figure 5a). The first one corresponds to silicon carbide, while the second one refers to silicon oxide [24]. A weak third component may be associated with Si–O2 bonds [19]. The formation of silicon oxide is also observed in

Energy distribution in an ensemble of nanoparticles and its consequences

• Dieter Vollath

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1452–1457, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.143

• scattered on a sheet of silicon oxide. Additionally, these particles were separated by an oleic acid coating of 2 nm. Woods et al. [5] determined the magnetic noise power as a function of temperature during the superparamagnetic transition. For this example, the experimental data obtained from 5 nm

Photoactive nanoarchitectures based on clays incorporating TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles

• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky,
• Pilar Aranda,
• Marwa Akkari,
• Nithima Khaorapapong and
• Makoto Ogawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1140–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.114

• ), montmorillonite (B), sepiolite (C), halloysite nanotubes (HNT) (D), and the metal oxides, anatase (E) and wurtzite (F), obtained by applying the VESTA software using the following color codes: silicon oxide tetrahedron – blue: Si, red: O. In kaolinite and halloysite – aluminium oxide-hydroxide octahedron: green

On the transformation of “zincone”-like into porous ZnO thin films from sub-saturated plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

• Alberto Perrotta,
• Julian Pilz,
• Stefan Pachmajer,
• Antonella Milella and
• Anna Maria Coclite

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 746–759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.74

• the software CompleteEASE®. The thickness was determined by applying a three-layer model consisting of a silicon substrate, a native silicon-oxide layer with a fixed thickness of 1.5–2.0 nm, and a Cauchy layer, as follows in which n is the wavelength-dependent refractive index, λ is the wavelength and

Advanced scanning probe lithography using anatase-to-rutile transition to create localized TiO₂ nanorods

• Julian Kalb,
• Vanessa Knittel and
• Lukas Schmidt-Mende

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 412–418, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.40

• and might charge the film locally. The charges are likely trapped in defect states generated by the scratching process. Furthermore, the native silicon oxide layer prevents a quick charge transport into the conductive boron-doped silicon substrate. A charged film might attract the precursor more

Geometrical optimisation of core–shell nanowire arrays for enhanced absorption in thin crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Robin Vismara,
• Olindo Isabella,
• Andrea Ingenito,
• Fai Tong Si and
• Miro Zeman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 322–331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.31

• , was first coated onto the front surface of the wafer on which the nanowires were distributed. Following a hydrogen-plasma treatment, highly transparent boron-doped hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon oxide (nc-SiOx(p):H) with 30 nm equivalent thickness was deposited on a-Si:H. For the front electrode

Investigation of CVD graphene as-grown on Cu foil using simultaneous scanning tunneling/atomic force microscopy

• Majid Fazeli Jadidi,
• Umut Kamber,
• Oğuzhan Gürlü and
• H. Özgür Özer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2953–2959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.274

• would be useful in understanding the mechanisms of such interactions. Nowadays, a variety of methods are used to prepare graphene. Mechanical exfoliation of graphite facilitates obtaining micrometer-scale graphene layers on amorphous substrates such as silicon oxide [1]. Graphene monolayers have been