We combine conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to reveal the interaction of atomically thin layered materials (ATLMs) down to nanoscale lateral dimension. The setup also allows quantifying, for the first time, the effect of layer number and electric field on the dielectric constant of ATLMs with few-layer down to monolayer thickness. Our CAFM-assist...

Recent developments in piconewton instrumentation allow the manipulation of single molecules and measurements of intermolecular as well as intramolecular forces. Dextran filaments linked to a gold surface were probed with the atomic force microscope tip by vertical stretching. At low forces the deformation of dextran was found to be dominated by entropic forces and can be described by the Lange...

A series of BiOBrxI(1-x) solid solutions were explored as novel visible light-sensitive photocatalysts. These BiOBrxI(1-x) solid-solution photocatalysts grew into two-dimensional nanoplates with exposed (001) facets and possessed continuously modulated band gaps from 2.87 to 1.89 eV by decreasing the Br/I ratio. The photocatalytic activities of these samples were measured, and the samples exhib...

Atomically thin MoS2 is of great interest for electronic and optoelectronic applications because of its unique two-dimensional (2D) quantum confinement; however, the scaling of optoelectronic properties of MoS2 and its junctions with metals as a function of layer number as well the spatial variation of these properties remain unaddressed. In this work, we use photocurrent spectral atomic force ...

Straight Si nanowires (Si NWs) with tens to hundreds of micrometers in length and 40-200 nm in diameter are achieved by annealing a Si substrate coated with metallic Fe. The influences of annealing gas and temperature on the formation of Si NWs are investigated. It is found that the annealing gas has significant impacts on the microstructure of the NWs. By increasing the hydrogen ratio in the f...

This study focuses on hexagonal boron nitride as an ultra-thin van der Waals dielectric substrate for the epitaxial growth of highly ordered crystalline networks of the organic semiconductor parahexaphenyl. Atomic force microscopy based morphology analysis combined with density functional theory simulations reveal their epitaxial relation. As a consequence, needle-like crystallites of parahexap...

Nanomachining experiments on fused quartz surface have been performed using an atomic force microscope combined with a two-axis capacitive force/displacement transducer. The minimum normal force fnP needed to form reproducibly a groove was about 4.7 μN. The minimum critical normal force fnR, tangential force ftR, and groove depth dgR when the material removal process began were found to be 33.7...

In this article, we report the first successful preparation of single- and few-layers of tantalum diselenide (2H-TaSe₂) by mechanical exfoliation technique. Number of layers is confirmed by white light contrast spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Vibrational properties of the atomically thin layers of 2H-TaSe₂ are characterized by micro-Raman spectroscopy. Room temperature Raman mea...

Thermal noise spectra of nanomechanical resonators are used widely to characterize their physical properties. These spectra typically exhibit a Lorentzian response, with additional white noise due to extraneous processes. Least-squares fits of these measurements enable extraction of key parameters of the resonator, including its resonant frequency, quality factor, and stiffness. Here, we presen...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of different ageing times before deboning (deboning time) and ageing times after deboning (holding time) on the quality (sensory attributes and texture) and cooking loss of chicken breast marinated, cooked and frozen using a continuous process.The following32 experimental design was used (3 deboning times: zero, 6 and 12 hours; and 3 hol...