Zhiqin Li

Sr(0.4)H(1.2)Nb(2)O(6)·H(2)O nanopolyhedra: an efficient photocatalyst.

A photocatalyst Sr(0.4)H(1.2)Nb(2)O(6)·H(2)O (HSN) nanopolyhedra with high surface area has been successfully prepared by a simple hydrothermal method. The as-prepared samples were characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, TEM and XPS. The electronic structure of HSN determined by DFT calculations and electrochemical measurement revealed that HSN is an indirect-bandgap and n-type semiconductor, respectively. HSN samples showed high photocatalytic activities for both pure water splitting and the decomposition of benzene. The rate of H(2) evolution over HSN was 15 times higher than that of P25 and the conversion ratio of benzene exceeded twice that of P25. The photocatalytic activities for water splitting can be greatly improved by loading various co-catalysts on HSN, such as Au, Pt, and Pd. The photocatalytic mechanisms were proposed based on the band structure and characterization results of the photocatalyst.

Fabrication of single-crystal silicon nanotubes with sub-10 nm walls using cryogenic inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching.

Single-crystal silicon nanostructures have attracted much attention in recent years due in part to their unique optical properties. In this work, we demonstrate direct fabrication of single-crystal silicon nanotubes with sub-10 nm walls which show low reflectivity. The fabrication was based on a cryogenic inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching process using high-resolution hydrogen silsesquioxane nanostructures as the hard mask. Two main etching parameters including substrate low-frequency power and SF6/O2 flow rate ratio were investigated to determine the etching mechanism in the process. With optimized etching parameters, high-aspect-ratio silicon nanotubes with smooth and vertical sub-10 nm walls were fabricated. Compared to commonly-used antireflection silicon nanopillars with the same feature size, the densely packed silicon nanotubes possessed a lower reflectivity, implying possible potential applications of silicon nanotubes in photovoltaics.

Sensitive SERS detection at the single-particle level based on nanometer-separated mushroom-shaped plasmonic dimers

Elevated metallic nanostructures with nanogaps (<10 nm) possess advantages for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) via the synergic effects of nanogaps and efficient decoupling from the substrate through an elevated three-dimensional (3D) design. In this work, we demonstrate a pattern-transfer-free process to reliably define elevated nanometer-separated mushroom-shaped dimers directly from 3D resist patterns based on the gap-narrowing effect during the metallic film deposition. By controlling the initial size of nanogaps in resist structures and the following deposited film thickness, metallic nanogaps could be tuned at the sub-10 nm scale with single-digit nanometer precision. Both experimental and simulated results revealed that gold dimer on mushroom-shaped pillars have the capability to achieve higher SERS enhancement factor comparing to those plasmonic dimers on cylindrical pillars or on a common SiO2/Si substrate, implying that the nanometer-gapped elevated dimer is an ideal platform to achieve the highest possible field enhancement for various plasmonic applications.

Osiers-sprout-like heteroatom-doped carbon nanofibers as ultrastable anodes for lithium/sodium ion storage

We report an in situ carbothermic reduction process to prepare osiers-sprout-like heteroatom-doped carbon nanofibers. The dosage of copper salts and a unique annealing process have a crucial effect on the development of this unique carbon structure. A systematic analysis is performed to elucidate the possible mechanism of synthesis of the carbon nanofibers decorated with carbon bubbles. As anodes for rechargeable lithium/sodium ion batteries, the heteroatom-doped nanofibers exhibit high reversible capacities and satisfactory long-term cycling stabilities. The osiers-sprout-like heteroatom-doped carbon nanofiber electrodes deliver an ultrastable cycling performance with reversible capacities of 480 and 160 mAh·g−1 for lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries after 900 cycles at a current density of 800 mA·g−1, respectively.

Vapor-phase preparation of single-crystalline thin gold microplates using HAuCl4 as the precursor for plasmonic applications

We report a facile vapor-phase method to synthesize single-crystalline, atomically smooth gold microplates with thickness less than 100 nm. Compared to the existing methods to synthesize gold plates, the current method uses only chloroauric acid as the precursor and thus allows us to obtain clean gold microplates without any ligands and carbon contamination. By carrying out control experiments, it is hypothesized that Cl− ions play a crucial role in the anisotropic growth of microplates through their selective adsorption on the (111) surface of gold. With their clean, single crystalline and ultrasmooth features, we demonstrate that the synthesized gold microplates may be used to define high-quality plasmonic nanostructures using focused ion beam lithography.

Low-voltage-exposure-enabled hydrogen silsesquioxane bilayer-like process for three-dimensional nanofabrication.

We report a bilayer-like electron-beam lithographic process to obtain three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures by using only a single hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) resist layer. The process utilizes the short penetration depth of low-energy (1.5 keV) electron irradiation to first obtain a partially cross-linked HSQ top layer and then uses a high-voltage electron beam (30 keV) to obtain self-aligned undercut (e.g. mushroom-shaped) and freestanding HSQ nanostructures. Based on the well-defined 3D resist patterns, 3D metallic nanostructures were directly fabricated with high fidelity by just depositing a metallic layer. As an example, Ag-coated mushroom-shaped nanostructures were fabricated, which showed lower plasmon resonance damping compared to their planar counterparts. In addition, the undercut 3D nanostructures also enable more reliable lift-off in comparison with the planar nanostructures, with which high-quality silver nanohole arrays were fabricated which show distinct and extraordinary optical transmission in the visible range.

Polarization-dependent scattering properties of single-crystalline silicon nanocylindroids

Silicon nanostructures have been attracting increasing attention as nanoscale Mie scatters for various applications due to the subwavelength light concentration capability endowed by its high refractive index and the fabrication compatibility with the chip manufacturing processes. In this work, we investigate the polarization-dependent scattering properties of lithographic single-crystalline silicon nanocylindroids at the visible range. Both simulated and experimental studies were carried out to reveal the electric and magnetic resonance modes that occur in the silicon nanocylindroids. Systematic control experiments were conducted to demonstrate the polarization and size dependence of the resonance-induced scattering peaks. The unique anisotropic optical property of lithographically fabricated Si nanostructures at the single particle resolution provides an extra freedom to design silicon-based optical elements at the visible range for enhanced light-matter interactions.

An anti-ultrasonic-stripping effect in confined micro/nanoscale cavities and its applications for efficient multiscale metallic patterning

We report a method to reliably and efficiently fabricate high-fidelity metallic structures from a ten-nanometer to a millimeter scale based on an anti-ultrasonic-stripping (AUS) effect in confined micro/nanoscale cavities. With this AUS effect, metallic structures, which are surrounded by the pre-patterned closed templates, could be defined through selectively removing the evaporated metallic layer at the top and outside of the templates by ultrasonic-cavitation-induced stripping. Because only pre-patterned templates are required for exposure in this multiscale patterning process, this AUS-based process enables much smaller and more reliable plasmonic nanogaps due to the mitigated proximity effect and allows rapid fabrication of multiscale metallic structures which require both tiny and large structures. With unprecedented efficiency and resolution down to a ten-nanometer scale, various metallic structures were fabricated using this AUS-effect-based multiscale patterning process. This AUS effect paves the way for direct writing of metallic structures with a high resolution over a large area for practical applications in plasmonics and nanogap-based electronics.