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A new type of a specifically tailored resist for Soft Nanoimprint Lithography (Soft UV-NIL) namely mr-NIL213FC has been developed. It aims for a significant improvement of its etch-resistance with regard to underlying oxide substrates such as glass. This work demonstrates the first study of its imprint performance and etching behavior against fused silica wafers. First of all, the resist shows full compatibility with automated Soft UV-NIL using PDMS-based soft stamps and at ambient (oxygen containing) conditions for both step-and-repeat and full-wafer approaches. Moreover, the selectivity of the resist to the underlying fused silica substrate, in a high power and high etch rate condition, has reached to over 0.6, which is a significant step-up among most products in this context. The improved resistance of the resist facilitates direct etching processes for high resolution and high structure fidelity. Keywords: Soft UV NIL, Nanofabrication, PDMS stamp, Glass etching, High etching selectivity, New resist

Iron-oxide and in particular its crystallographic phase hematite (α-Fe2O3) is a promising candidate for non-toxic, earth abundant and low cost photo-anodes in the field of photo-electrochemical water splitting. We report here on the synthesis of α-Fe2O3 nanowires by thermal oxidation of low-cost steel substrates. Nanowires grown in this manner exhibit often a blade-like shape but can also possess a wire-like geometry partly decorated at their tip with an iron-rich ellipsoidal head consisting also of crystalline iron-oxide. We show furthermore that these ellipsoidal heads represent suitable growth sites leading in some cases to an additional growth of so-called antenna nanowires. Besides nanowires also nanoflakes were frequently observed at the surface. We discuss the influence of the oxidation temperature and other synthesis parameters as well as dispute the current growth models. Finally, we show that our α-Fe2O3 nanostructures on steel are also photo-electrochemically active supporting in principle their use as photo-anode material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assembly strategies for functional nanowire devices that merge bottom-up and top-down technologies have been debated for over a decade. Although several breakthroughs have been reported, nanowire device fabrication techniques remain generally incompatible with large-scale and high-yield top-down microelectronics manufacturing. Strategies enabling the controlled transfer of nanowires from the growth substrate to pre-defined locations on a target surface would help to address this challenge. Based on the promising concept of mechanical nanowire transfer, we developed the technique of surface-controlled contact printing, which is based purely on dry friction between a nanowire and a target surface. Surface features, so-called catchers, alter the local frictional force or deposition probability and allow the positioning of single nanowires. Surface-controlled contact printing extends the current scope of nanowire alignment strategies with the intention to facilitate efficient nanowire device fabrication. This is demonstrated by the simultaneous assembly of 36 nanowire resistors within a chip area of greater than 2 cm2 aided only by mask-assisted photolithography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platinum (Pt) has been known as a catalyst material for vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) synthesis since the mid 1960s with the potential to grow electronic grade silicon nanowires (SiNWs). In contrast to gold-based growth, Pt-catalyzed SiNW synthesis has rarely been studied, most likely due to higher synthesis temperatures and the formation of multiple Pt silicide phases. Here we present the growth of SiNWs from a Pt catalyst deposited by a focused ion or electron beam, which opens new strategies for the assembly of Pt-catalyzed SiNW-based devices, as well as SiNW growth from Pt nanoparticles and thin films. We show that single-crystalline SiNWs exhibit either the well-known catalyst tip or a polycrystalline silicon tip so far not reported. The local Pt concentration was found to be one key parameter triggering the growth mode. The proposed growth model for both types of SiNWs is based on a solid-state silicide-mediated crystallization rather than VLS. The discussion of the growth modes is supported by a variation of several growth parameters and SiNW synthesis using the substrate materials silicon nitride, single-crystalline silicon, fused silica, and sapphire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D printing down to the nanoscale remains a significant challenge. In this paper, the study explores the use of scanning probes that emit low-energy electrons (<100 eV) coupled with the localized injection and electron-induced decomposition of precursor molecules, for the precise localized deposition of 3D nanostructures. The experiments are performed inside the chamber of a scanning electron microscope (SEM), enabling the use of the in-built gas injector system (GIS) with gaseous naphthalene precursor for carbon deposition, as well as immediate inspection of the deposits by SEM. Substrate materials are planar fused silica with thin conductive coatings and non-planar copper wedges. After investigation of the deposition process parameters, various 2D and 3D carbon deposits are grown. Vertical nanowires several microns in length with a diameter <100 nm are achieved and 3D deposits with a high degree of nanoscale branching are also obtained, presumably due to a charging effect. High aspect ratio carbon nanostructures such as those demonstrated here can be employed as miniaturized electrodes or field emitters. The tip-based approach presented thus paves the way toward 3D nanoscale printing of various materials and functional nanostructures., (© 2024 The Author(s). Small published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Electrohydrodynamic wetting manipulation plays a major role in modern microfluidic technologies such as lab-on-a-chip applications and digital microfluidics. Liquid dielectrophoresis (LDEP) is a common driving mechanism, which induces hydrodynamic motion in liquids by the application of nonhomogeneous electrical fields. Among strategies to analyze droplet movement, systematic research on the influence of different frequencies under AC voltage is missing. In this paper, we therefore present a first study covering the motion characteristics of LDEP-driven droplets of the dielectric liquids ethylene glycol and glycerol carbonate in the driving voltage frequency range from 50 Hz to 1600 Hz. A correlation between the switching speed of LDEP-actuated droplets in a planar electrode configuration and the frequency of the applied voltage is shown. Hereby, motion times of different-sized droplets could be reduced by up to a factor of 5.3. A possible excitation of the droplets within their range of eigenfrequencies is investigated using numerical calculations. The featured fluidic device is designed using larger-sized electrodes rather than typical finger or strip electrodes, which are commonly employed in LDEP devices. The influence of the electrode shape is considered simulatively by studying the electric field gradients.

An unconventional approach for the resistless nanopatterning 2H- and 1T'-MoTe 2 by means of scanning probe lithography is presented. A Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current of low energetic electrons (E = 30-60 eV) emitted from the tip of an atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever is utilized to induce a nanoscale oxidation on a MoTe 2 nanosheet surface under ambient conditions. Due to the water solubility of the generated oxide, a direct pattern transfer into the MoTe 2 surface can be achieved by a simple immersion of the sample in deionized water. The tip-grown oxide is characterized using Auger electron and Raman spectroscopy, revealing it consists of amorphous MoO 3 /MoO x as well as TeO 2 /TeO x . With the presented technology in combination with subsequent AFM imaging it is possible to demonstrate a strong anisotropic sensitivity of 1T'-/(T d )-MoTe 2 to aqueous environments. Finally the discussed approach is used to structure a nanoribbon field effect transistor out of a few-layer 2H-MoTe 2 nanosheet., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

In this paper, a miniaturized weighing cell that is based on a micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) is discussed. The MEMS-based weighing cell is inspired by macroscopic electromagnetic force compensation (EMFC) weighing cells and one of the crucial system parameters, the stiffness, is analyzed. The system stiffness in the direction of motion is first analytically evaluated using a rigid body approach and then also numerically modeled using the finite element method for comparison purposes. First prototypes of MEMS-based weighing cells were successfully microfabricated and the occurring fabrication-based system characteristics were considered in the overall system evaluation. The stiffness of the MEMS-based weighing cells was experimentally determined by using a static approach based on force-displacement measurements. Considering the geometry parameters of the microfabricated weighing cells, the measured stiffness values fit to the calculated stiffness values with a deviation from -6.7 to 3.8% depending on the microsystem under test. Based on our results, we demonstrate that MEMS-based weighing cells can be successfully fabricated with the proposed process and in principle be used for high-precision force measurements in the future. Nevertheless, improved system designs and read-out strategies are still required.

A multistage optimization method is developed yielding Tesla valves that are efficient even at low flow rates, characteristic, e.g., for almost all microfluidic systems, where passive valves have intrinsic advantages over active ones. We report on optimized structures that show a diodicity of up to 1.8 already at flow rates of 20 μl s - 1 corresponding to a Reynolds number of 36. Centerpiece of the design is a topological optimization based on the finite element method. It is set-up to yield easy-to-fabricate valve structures with a small footprint that can be directly used in microfluidic systems. Our numerical two-dimensional optimization takes into account the finite height of the channel approximately by means of a so-called shallow-channel approximation. Based on the three-dimensionally extruded optimized designs, various test structures were fabricated using standard, widely available microsystem manufacturing techniques. The manufacturing process is described in detail since it can be used for the production of similar cost-effective microfluidic systems. For the experimentally fabricated chips, the efficiency of the different valve designs, i.e., the diodicity defined as the ratio of the measured pressure drops in backward and forward flow directions, respectively, is measured and compared to theoretical predictions obtained from full 3D calculations of the Tesla valves. Good agreement is found. In addition to the direct measurement of the diodicities, the flow profiles in the fabricated test structures are determined using a two-dimensional microscopic particle image velocimetry (μPIV) method. Again, a reasonable good agreement of the measured flow profiles with simulated predictions is observed., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Aligned large-scale deposition of nanowires grown in a bottom-up manner with high yield is a persisting challenge but required to assemble single-nanowire devices effectively. Contact printing is a powerful strategy in this regard but requires so far adequate adjustment of the tribological surface interactions between nanowires and target substrate, e.g. by microtechnological surface patterning, chemical modifications or lift-off strategies. To expand the technological possibilities, we explored two-directional pressure-controlled contact printing as an alternative approach to efficiently transfer nanowires with controlled density and alignment angle onto target substrates through vertical-force control. To better understand this technology and the mechanical behavior of nanowires during the contact printing process, the dynamic bending behavior of nanowires under varying printing conditions is modeled by using the finite element method. We show that the density and angular orientation of transferred nanowires can be controlled using this three-axis printing approach, which thus enables potentially a controlled nanowire device fabrication on a large scale., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is combined with polarization angle-resolved spectroscopy to investigate the nanometer-scale structural properties of core-shell silicon nanowires (crystalline Si core and amorphous Si shell), which were synthesized by platinum-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid growth and silicon overcoating by thermal chemical vapor deposition. Local changes in the fraction of crystallinity in these silicon nanowires are characterized at an optical resolution of about 300 nm. Furthermore, we are able to resolve the variations in the intensity ratios of the Raman peaks of crystalline Si and amorphous Si by applying tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, at sample positions being 8 nm apart. The local crystallinity revealed using confocal Raman spectroscopy and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy agrees well with the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images. Additionally, the polarizations of Raman scattering and the photoluminescence signal from the tip-sample nanogap are explored by combining polarization angle-resolved emission spectroscopy with tip-enhanced optical spectroscopy. Our work demonstrates the significant potential of resolving local structural properties of Si nanomaterials at the sub-10 nanometer scale using tip-enhanced Raman techniques., (Copyright © 2020, van den Berg et al.; licensee Beilstein-Institut.)

High-yield epitaxial bottom-up growth of silicon nanowires is still challenging but desirable for various applications such as antireflective coatings, solar cells, and high-aspect-ratio scanning probes. Hence, pristine single-crystalline silicon surfaces are, in principle, required as a growth substrate, but reoxidation occurring prior to nanowire growth obstructs epitaxial growth significantly. Here, we present an approach that relies on Al/Au alloy catalysts for gas-phase silicon nanowire synthesis, allowing intrinsically an in situ removal of a native silicon-oxide layer during the initial growth stages. This approach yields reliable and superior epitaxial growth of silicon nanowires on single-crystalline silicon substrates.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) measurements are conventionally performed using assemblies of metal nanostructures on a macro- to micro-sized substrate or by dispersing colloidal metal nanoparticles directly onto the sample of interest. Despite intense use, these methods allow neither the removal of the nanoparticles after a measurement nor a defined confinement of the SERS measurement position. So far, tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy is still the key technique in this regard but not adequate for various samples mainly due to diminished signal enhancement compared to other techniques, poor device fabrication reproducibility, and cumbersome experimental setup requirements. Here, we demonstrate that a rational combination of only four gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on a DNA origami template, and single silicon nanowires (SiNWs) yield functional optical amplifier nanoprobes for SERS. These nanoscale SERS devices offer a spatial resolution below the diffraction limit of light and still a high electric field intensity enhancement factor ( EF) of about 10 5 despite of miniaturization.

In this study, high-aspect ratio silicon nanowire (SiNW) - modified atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes are fabricated using focused ion beam (FIB) microfabrication technology and vapor-solid-solid synthesis. Commercially available soft silicon nitride probes are used for localized nanowire growth yielding soft high-aspect ratio AFM probes. The SiNW-modified cantilevers are used here for imaging in PeakForce Tappingۛ (PFT) mode, which offers high force control along with valuable information about tip-sample adhesion. A platinum catalyst, deposited accurately at a truncated AFM tip by ion beam-induced deposition (IBID), was used for localized nanowire synthesis. It could be shown that the deposition of a thin silicon dioxide layer prior to the catalyst deposition resulted in controlled SiNW growth on silicon as well as silicon nitride probes. In addition, a FIB-based method for post-growth alignment of the fabricated SiNW tips is presented, which allows tilt-compensation specifically tailored to the specifications of the used AFM instrumentation. To demonstrate the capability of such soft, high-aspect ratio AFM probes, optical gratings fabricated in GaAs and silver halide fibers were imaged in PFT mode. Additionally, the mechanical stability of these high-aspect AFM probes was evaluated on a sapphire substrate., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Well-characterized silane layers are essential for optimized attachment of (bio)molecules enabling reliable chem/biosensor performance. Herein, binding properties and orientation of 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane layers at crystalline sapphire (0001) surfaces were determined by water contact angle measurements, infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy measurements suggest an almost perpendicular arrangement of the MPTMS molecules to the substrate surface. Adhesion force studies between a silicon nitride AFM tip and modified sapphire, gold, and silicon dioxide substrates were investigated by peak force tapping atomic force microscopy and used to define the silane binding properties on these surfaces. As expected, the Al-O-Si bond was determined to be responsible for the layer formation at the sapphire substrate surface.

Superior photon absorption in ordered nanowire arrays has been demonstrated recently. However, systematic studies are still missing to explore the limits of their implementation as functional photonic devices. With emphasis on silicon nanowires, we investigated the effects of nanowire diameter, length, morphology, and pitch on the photon absorption within the visible solar spectrum based on simulations. Our results reveal that these parameters are crucial but disclose a path to improve the absorbance drastically., Pacs: 78.40.Fy; 78.67.Uh; 78.67.-n.

Nanowire-based field-effect transistors, including devices with planar and three-dimensional configurations, are being actively explored as detectors for extra- and intracellular recording due to their small size and high sensitivities. Here we report the synthesis, fabrication, and characterization of a new needle-shaped nanoprobe based on an active silicon nanotube transistor, ANTT, that enables high-resolution intracellular recording. In the ANTT probe, the source/drain contacts to the silicon nanotube are fabricated on one end, passivated from external solution, and then time-dependent changes in potential can be recorded from the opposite nanotube end via the solution filling the tube. Measurements of conductance versus water-gate potential in aqueous solution show that the ANTT probe is selectively gated by potential changes within the nanotube, thus demonstrating the basic operating principle of the ANTT device. Studies interfacing the ANTT probe with spontaneously beating cardiomyocytes yielded stable intracellular action potentials similar to those reported by other electrophysiological techniques. In addition, the straightforward fabrication of ANTT devices was exploited to prepare multiple ANTT structures at the end of single probes, which enabled multiplexed recording of intracellular action potentials from single cells and multiplexed arrays of single ANTT device probes. These studies open up unique opportunities for multisite recordings from individual cells through cellular networks.