Influence of Different Solvents and High-Electric-Field Cycling on Morphology and Ferroelectric Behavior of Poly(Vinylidene Fluoride-Hexafluoropropylene) Films.

P(VdF-HFP) films are fabricated via a solution casting doctor blade method using high (HVS) and low (LVS) volatile solvents, respectively. The structural properties and the ferroelectric behavior are investigated. The surface structure and crystal phase composition are found to be strongly dependent on the type of solvent.

Influence of the doping level on the porosity of silicon nanowires prepared by metal-assisted chemical etching.

A systematic method to control the porosity of silicon nanowires is presented. This method is based on metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) and takes advantage of an HF/H2O2 etching solution and a silver catalyst in the form of a thin patterned film deposited on a doped silicon wafer. It is found that the porosity of the etched nanowires can be controlled by the doping level of the wafer.

Nanoscaled surface patterns influence adhesion and growth of human dermal fibroblasts.

In general, there is a need for passivation of nanopatterned biomaterial surfaces if cells are intended to interact only with a feature of interest. For this reason self-assembled monolayers (SAM), varying in chain length, are used; they are highly effective in preventing protein adsorption or cell adhesion. In addition, a simple and cost-effective technique to design nanopatterns of various sizes and distances, the so-called nanosphere lithography (NSL), is discussed, which allows the control of cell adhesion and growth depending on the feature dimensions.

Ag-mediated charge transport during metal-assisted chemical etching of silicon nanowires.

The charge transport mechanism during metal-assisted chemical etching of Si nanowires with contiguous metal films has been investigated. The experiments give a better insight how the charges and reaction products can penetrate to the etching front. The formation of a layer of porous Si between the metal film and the bulk Si is a prerequisite for the etching process.

Sub-20 nm Si/Ge superlattice nanowires by metal-assisted etching.

An effective and low-cost method to fabricate hexagonally patterned, vertically aligned Si/Ge superlattice nanowires with diameters below 20 nm is presented. By combining the growth of Si/Ge superlattices by molecular beam epitaxy, prepatterning the substrate by anodic aluminum oxide masks, and finally metal-assisted chemical wet etching, this method generates highly ordered hexagonally patterned nanowires. This technique allows the fabrication of nanowires with a high area density of 10(10) wires/cm(2), including the control of their diameter and length.

Silicon nanocolumns on nanosphere lithography templated substrates: effects of sphere size and substrate temperature.

Glancing angle ion beam sputter deposition was used to grow regular arrays of Si nanocolumns with a nominal height of 650 nm at room temperature on polystyrene nanospheres with sphere diameters between 260 nm and 3550 nm, and at elevated temperatures on SiO2 nanospheres with a sphere diameter of 360 nm. Top view and cross sectional scanning electron microscopy reveals that the Si nanocolumns resemble cylinder-like structures, terminated by a hemispherical cap. Diameter, height and inter-column-spacing are found to depend linearly on the nanosphere diameter, thus giving the possibility to grow arrays of vertical Si columns with distinct porosities.

Ordered arrays of silicon nanowires produced by nanosphere lithography and molecular beam epitaxy.

Because of their importance in fundamental research and possible applications in nanotechnology and nanoelectronics, semiconductor nanowires have attracted much interest. In addition to the growth itself, the control of the size and location is an essential problem. Here we show the growth of ordered arrays of vertically aligned silicon nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy using prepatterned arrays of gold droplets on Si(111) substrates.