Crossover among structural motifs in Pd-Au nanoalloys.

The crossovers among the most abundant structural motifs (icosahedra, decahedra and truncated octahedra) of Pd-Au nanoalloys have been determined theoretically in a size range between 2 and 7 nm and for three compositions equivalent to Pd3Au, PdAu and PdAu3. The chemical ordering and segregation optimisation are performed via Monte Carlo simulations using semi-empirical tight-binding potentials fitted to ab initio calculations. The chemical configurations are then quenched via molecular dynamic simulations in order to compare their energy and characterize the equilibrium structures as a function of the cluster size. For the smaller sizes (of around 300 atoms and fewer) the structures are also optimized at the electronic level within ab initio calculations in order to validate the semi-empirical potential. The predictions of the crossover sizes for the nanoalloys cannot be simply extrapolated from the crossover of the pure nanoparticles but imply stress release phenomena related to the size misfit between the two metals. Indeed, alloying extends the range of stability of the icosahedron beyond that of the pure systems and the energy differences between decahedra and truncated octahedra become asymptotic, around the sizes of 5-6 nm. Nevertheless, such equilibrium results should be modulated regarding kinetic considerations or possible gas adsorption under experimental conditions.

Quantitative impedance characterization of sub-10 nm scale capacitors and tunnel junctions with an interferometric scanning microwave microscope.

We present a method to characterize sub-10 nm capacitors and tunnel junctions by interferometric scanning microwave microscopy (iSMM) at 7.8 GHz. At such device scaling, the small water meniscus surrounding the iSMM tip should be reduced by proper tip tuning. Quantitative impedance characterization of attofarad range capacitors is achieved using an 'on-chip' calibration kit facing thousands of nanodevices. Nanoscale capacitors and tunnel barriers were detected through variations in the amplitude and phase of the reflected microwave signal, respectively. This study promises quantitative impedance characterization of a wide range of emerging functional nanoscale devices.

A novel dog-bone oscillating AFM probe with thermal actuation and piezoresistive detection.

In order to effectively increase the resonance frequency and the quality factor of atomic force microscope (AFM) probes, a novel oscillating probe based on a dog-bone shaped MEMS resonator was conceived, designed, fabricated and evaluated. The novel probe with 400 µm in length, 100 µm in width and 5 µm in thickness was enabled to feature MHz resonance frequencies with integrated thermal actuation and piezoresistive detection. Standard silicon micromachining was employed. Both electrical and optical measurements were carried out in air. The resonance frequency and the quality factor of the novel probe were measured to be 5.4 MHz and 4000 respectively, which are much higher than those (about several hundreds of kHz) of commonly used cantilever probes. The probe was mounted onto a commercial AFM set-up through a dedicated probe-holder and circuit board. Topographic images of patterned resist samples were obtained. It is expected that the resonance frequency and the measurement bandwidth of such probes will be further increased by a proper downscaling, thus leading to a significant increase in the scanning speed capability of AFM instruments.

Optomechanical resonating probe for very high frequency sensing of atomic forces.

Atomic force spectroscopy and microscopy are invaluable tools to characterize nanostructures and biological systems. State-of-the-art experiments use resonant driving of mechanical probes, whose frequency reaches MHz in the fastest commercial instruments where cantilevers are driven at nanometer amplitude. Stiffer probes oscillating at tens of picometers provide a better access to short-range interactions, yielding images of molecular bonds, but they are little amenable to high-speed operation. Next-generation investigations demand combining very high frequency (>100 MHz) with deep sub-nanometer oscillation amplitude, in order to access faster (below microsecond) phenomena with molecular resolution. Here we introduce a resonating optomechanical atomic force probe operated fully optically at a frequency of 117 MHz, two decades above cantilevers, with a Brownian motion amplitude four orders below. Based on Silicon-On-Insulator technology, the very high frequency probe demonstrates single-pixel sensing of contact and non-contact interactions with sub-picometer amplitude, breaking open current limitations for faster and finer force spectroscopy.

Multi-MHz micro-electro-mechanical sensors for atomic force microscopy.

Silicon ring-shaped micro-electro-mechanical resonators have been fabricated and used as probes for dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments. They offer resotnance frequency above 10MHz, which is notably greater than that of usual cantilevers and quartz-based AFM probes. On-chip electrical actuation and readout of the tip oscillation are obtained by means of built-in capacitive transducers. Displacement and force resolutions have been determined from noise analysis at 1.5fm/√Hz and 0.4 pN/√Hz, respectively. Despite the high effective stiffness of the probes, the tip-surface interaction force is kept below 1 nN by using vibration amplitude significantly below 100pm and setpoint close to the free vibration conditions. Imaging capabilities in amplitude- and frequency-modulation AFM modes have been demonstrated on block copolymer surfaces. Z-spectroscopy experiments revealed that the tip is vibrating in permanent contact with the viscoelastic material, with a pinned contact line. Results are compared to those obtained with commercial AFM cantilevers driven at large amplitudes (>10nm).

Cu-Ag (111) polymorphism induced by segregation and advacancies.

Chemical and structural phase transitions induced by Ag surface segregation in the dilute Cu(Ag) (111) system have been investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. The polymorphism observed when depositing Ag on Cu (111) is proven to exist also in equilibrium segregation. If the segregation isotherms are not very sensitive to the superstructures, we show that the superstructure observed in the high part of the isotherm depends strongly on the number of advacancies.