0000000001185185
AUTHOR
Sven Oras
Au nanowire junction breakup through surface atom diffusion.
Metallic nanowires are known to break into shorter fragments due to the Rayleigh instability mechanism. This process is strongly accelerated at elevated temperatures and can completely hinder the functioning of nanowire-based devices like e.g. transparent conductive and flexible coatings. At the same time, arranged gold nanodots have important applications in electrochemical sensors. In this paper we perform a series of annealing experiments of gold and silver nanowires and nanowire junctions at fixed temperatures 473, 673, 873 and 973 K (200 degrees C, 400 degrees C, 600 degrees C and 700 degrees C) during a time period of 10 min. We show that nanowires are especially prone to fragmentatio…
Kinking in Semiconductor Nanowires: A Review
The growth direction of nanowires (NWs) can change during synthesis as a result of stochastic processes or modulation of certain growth conditions. This phenomenon is known as kinking. Although deviations from a uniform vertical growth are typically considered to be undesirable, kinking opens a route for additional tweaking of the characteristics and functionalities of NWs in a controllable manner, thus extending the range of potential applications. In the present Review, we give an insight into the kinking mechanisms and summarize the most crucial factors that can lead to kinking of NWs during synthesis. Additionally, the properties and applications of kinked NWs are discussed. © 2021 The …
Complex tribomechanical characterization of ZnO nanowires: nanomanipulations supported by FEM simulations
In the present work, we demonstrate a novel approach to nanotribological measurements based on the bending manipulation of hexagonal ZnO nanowires (NWs) in an adjustable half-suspended configuration inside a scanning electron microscope. A pick-and-place manipulation technique was used to control the length of the adhered part of each suspended NW. Static and kinetic friction were found by a 'self-sensing' approach based on the strain profile of the elastically bent NW during manipulation and its Young's modulus, which was separately measured in a three-point bending test with an atomic force microscope. The calculation of static friction from the most bent state was completely reconsidered…
Mechanical characterisation of pentagonal gold nanowires in three different test configurations: A comparative study.
Abstract Mechanical characterisation of individual nanostructures is a challenging task and can greatly benefit from the utilisation of several alternative approaches to increase the reliability of results. In the present work, we have measured and compared the elastic modulus of five-fold twinned gold nanowires (NWs) with atomic force microscopy (AFM) indentation in three different test configurations: three-point bending with fixed ends, three-point bending with free ends and cantilevered-beam bending. The free-ends condition was realized by introducing a novel approach where the NW is placed diagonally inside an inverted pyramid chemically etched in a silicon wafer. In addition, all thre…
Manipulation of nanoparticles of different shapes inside a scanning electron microscope
In this work polyhedron-like gold and sphere-like silver nanoparticles (NPs) were manipulated on an oxidized Si substrate to study the dependence of the static friction and the contact area on the particle geometry. Measurements were performed inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) that was equipped with a high-precision XYZ-nanomanipulator. To register the occurring forces a quartz tuning fork (QTF) with a glued sharp probe was used. Contact areas and static friction forces were calculated by using different models and compared with the experimentally measured force. The effect of NP morphology on the nanoscale friction is discussed.
Metal nanodumbbells for nanomanipulations and tribological experiments
Nanomanipulation experiments were carried out on nanodumbbells (NDs) to study their kinetic behavior and tribological properties. Ag, Au and Cu NDs were produced by laser-induced melting of corresponding nanowires (NWs). NDs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Manipulation experiments were performed first with atomic force microscope (AFM) at ambient conditions, and then inside SEM at high vacuum conditions. Different regimes of motion were observed. In-plane and out-of-substrate-plane rotation were identified as the most preferred motion types of NDs.
The effect of heat treatment on the morphology and mobility of Au nanoparticles
This work was supported by The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France and the French Embassy Program. The authors are also grateful for partial support by COST Action CA15216, the Estonian Science Foundation (grants PUT1689 and PUT1372), the Estonian Centre of Excellence in Zero Energy and Resource Efficient Smart Buildings and Districts, ZEBE, grant 2014-2020.4.01.15.0016 and Latvian Science Council grant lzp-2018/2-0083.
Effect of cobalt doping on the mechanical properties of ZnO nanowires
Abstract In this work, we investigate the influence of doping on the mechanical properties of ZnO nanowires (NWs) by comparing the mechanical properties of pure and Co-doped ZnO NWs grown in similar conditions and having the same crystallographic orientation [0001]. The mechanical characterization included three-point bending tests made with atomic force microscopy and cantilever beam bending tests performed inside scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the Young's modulus of ZnO NWs containing 5% of Co was approximately a third lower than that of the pure ZnO NWs. Bending strength values were comparable for both materials and in both cases were close to theoretical strength indica…
Some aspects of formation and tribological properties of silver nanodumbbells.
In this paper, metal nanodumbbells (NDs) formed by laser-induced melting of Ag nanowires (NWs) on an oxidized silicon substrate and their tribological properties are investigated. The mechanism of ND formation is proposed and illustrated with finite element method simulations. Tribological measurements consist in controllable real-time manipulation of NDs inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with simultaneous force registration. The geometry of NDs enables to distinguish between different types of motion, i.e. rolling, sliding and rotation. Real contact areas are calculated from the traces left after the displacement of NDs and compared to the contact areas predicted by the contact m…
Enhanced flexibility and electron-beam-controlled shape recovery in alumina-coated Au and Ag core–shell nanowires
The proper choice of coating materials and methods in core–shell nanowire (NW) engineering is crucial to assuring improved characteristics or even new functionalities of the resulting composite structures. In this paper, we have reported electron-beam-induced reversible elastic-to-plastic transition in Ag/Al2O3 and Au/Al2O3 NWs prepared by the coating of Ag and Au NWs with Al2O3 by low-temperature atomic layer deposition. The observed phenomenon enabled freezing the bent core–shell NW at any arbitrary curvature below the yield strength of the materials and later restoring its initially straight profile by irradiating the NW with electrons. In addition, we demonstrated that the coating effic…
The Effect of a Nucleation Layer on Morphology and Grain Size in MOCVD-Grown β-Ga2O3 Thin Films on C-Plane Sapphire
This research is funded by the Latvian Council of Science project “Epitaxial Ga2O3 thin films as ultrawide bandgap topological transparent electrodes for ultraviolet optoelectronics” No. lzp-2020/1-0345. S.O. was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, under Grant Agreement No. 856705 (ERA Chair “MATTER”). Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART².
Adhesion and mechanical properties of PDMS-based materials probed with AFM: A review
This work was supported by Russian Science Foundation project grant 18-19-00645 "Adhesion of polymer-based soft materials: from liquid to solid-.