Jan Hinnerk Richter

Construction of highly conductive nanowires on a DNA template

We present measurements of the electrical conductivity of metallic nanowires which have been fabricated by chemical deposition of a thin continuous palladium film onto single DNA molecules to install electrical functionality. The DNA molecules have been positioned between macroscopic Au electrodes and are metallized afterwards. Low-resistance electrical interfacing was obtained by pinning the nanowires at the electrodes with electron-beam-induced carbon lines. The investigated nanowires exhibit ohmic transport behavior at room temperature. Their specific conductivity is only one order of magnitude below that of bulk palladium, confirming that DNA is an ideal template for the production of electric wires, which can be utilized for the bottom-up construction of miniaturized electrical circuits.

Growth of ultrathin ZrO2 films on Si(100): Film-thickness-dependent band alignment

The band alignment of ultrathin ZrO2 films of different thickness formed on Si(100) have been monitored with synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. The films were deposited sequentially by way of metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition in ultrahigh vacuum. A significant decrease in the conduction band offset is found for increasing film thickness. It is accompanied by a corresponding increase of the valence band offset. The variations originate in the formation of an interfacial layer characterized by a lower degree of Zr-O interaction than in bulk ZrO2 but with no clear evidence for partially occupied Zr4d dangling bonds.

Inter- and intra-molecular migration of peptide amide hydrogens during electrospray ionization

The isotopic exchange of amide hydrogens in proteins in solution strongly depends on the surrounding protein structure, thereby allowing structural studies of proteins by mass spectrometry. However, during electrospray ionization (ESI), gas phase processes may scramble or deplete the isotopic information. These processes have been investigated by on-line monitoring of the exchange of labile deuterium atoms in homopeptides with hydrogens from a solvent suitable for ESI. The relative contribution of intra- and inter-molecular exchange in the gas phase could be studied from their distinct influence on the well-characterized exchange processes in the spraying solution. The deuterium content of individual labile hydrogens was assessed from the isotopic patterns of two consecutive collision-induced dissociation fragments, as observed with a 9.4 T Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer. Results demonstrate that gas phase exchange in the high-pressure region between the capillary and the skimmer cause substantial depletion of the isotopic information of penta-phenylalanine and penta-aspartic acid. For penta-alanine and hexa-tyrosine, the amide hydrogens located close to the N-terminus are depleted from deuterium during mass analysis. Amide hydrogens located close to the C-terminus still retain the information of the isotopic state in solution, but they are redistributed by intra-molecular exchange of the amide hydrogens with the C-terminal hydroxyl group.

A hard X-ray nanospectroscopy station at SPring-8 BL39XU

We upgraded the hard X-ray spectroscopy beamline BL39XU at SPring-8 by installing Kirkpatrick-Baez mirrors to equip it with submicron-focusing capability. At the new experimental end-station located 74 m from the undulator source, an X-ray nanoprobe with a size of 120 × 100 nm2 has become available at 5–16 keV. This upgrade is fully compatible with the X-ray polarization tunability and helicity-switching between right- and left-circular polarizations; these are unique features of the beamline, which is equipped with a diamond X-ray phase retarder. A spatial resolution of ≈100 nm for X-ray absorption fine structure and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectroscopy has been achieved. We show a magnetization reversal process of an individual magnetic dot in bit-patterned perpendicular recording media using element-specific XMCD magnetization measurements to demonstrate the performance of the new station.

Electronic structure of a laterally graded ZrO2–TiO2 film on Si(100) prepared by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition in ultrahigh vacuum

A TiO2-ZrO2 film with laterally graded stoichiometry has been prepared by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition in ultrahigh vacuum. The film was characterized in situ using synchrotron radiation ...

Band alignment at the ZrO2/Si(100) interface studied by photoelectron and x-ray absorption spectroscopy

We present measurements of the Zr and Si core level photoelectron binding energies relative to the Fermi level and the vacuum level under a ZrO2 growth series on Si(100). It is shown that the Zr core level binding energy is most properly referenced to the local vacuum level already from the monolayer regime. This confirms the insulating properties of ZrO2. The Si core levels are referenced to the Fermi level and undergo shifts consistent with the disappearance of the mid-band-gap states originating from the (2×1) reconstruction on the clean Si(100) surface. The use of O 1s x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to determine the location of the conduction band edge of ZrO2 is discussed with the aid of ab initio calculations. It is demonstrated that the conduction band edge is located at the XAS peak position and that the position relative to the valence band can be determined by aligning the O 1s XAS spectrum to the O 1s photoelectron spectrum. The study thus establishes that photoelectron spectroscopy in con...

Hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of Ge2Sb2Te5; as-deposited amorphous, crystalline, and laser-reamorphized

We have investigated the electronic structure of as-deposited, crystalline, and laser-reamorphized Ge2Sb2Te5 using high resolution, hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. A shift in the Fermi level as well as a broadening of the spectral features in the valence band and the Ge 3d level between the amorphous and crystalline state is observed. Upon amorphization, Ge 3d and Sb 4d spectra show a surprisingly small breaking of resonant bonds and changes in the bonding character as evidenced by the very similar density of states in all cases.