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    Magnetic Nanoparticle Chains in Gelatin Ferrogels: Bioinspiration from Magnetotactic Bacteria
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2019) Sturm, Sebastian; Siglreitmeier, Maria; Wolf, Daniel; Vogel, Karin; Gratz, Micha; Faivre, Damien; Lubk, Axel; Büchner, Bernd; Sturm, Elena V.; Cölfen, Helmut
    Inspired by chains of ferrimagnetic nanocrystals (NCs) in magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), the synthesis and detailed characterization of ferrimagnetic magnetite NC chain-like assemblies is reported. An easy green synthesis route in a thermoreversible gelatin hydrogel matrix is used. The structure of these magnetite chains prepared with and without gelatin is characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy, including electron tomography (ET). These structures indeed bear resemblance to the magnetite assemblies found in MTB, known for their mechanical flexibility and outstanding magnetic properties and known to crystallographically align their magnetite NCs along the strongest <111> magnetization easy axis. Using electron holography (EH) and angular dependent magnetic measurements, the magnetic interaction between the NCs and the generation of a magnetically anisotropic material can be shown. The electro- and magnetostatic modeling demonstrates that in order to precisely determine the magnetization (by means of EH) inside chain-like NCs assemblies, their exact shape, arrangement and stray-fields have to be considered (ideally obtained using ET). © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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    Tailoring Plasmonics of Au@Ag Nanoparticles by Silica Encapsulation
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Schultz, Johannes; Kirner, Felizitas; Potapov, Pavel; Büchner, Bernd; Lubk, Axel; Sturm, Elena V.
    Hybrid metallic nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated in oxide shells are currently intensely studied for plasmonic applications in sensing, medicine, catalysis, and photovoltaics. Here, a method for the synthesis of Au@Ag@SiO2 cubes with a uniform silica shell of variable and adjustable thickness in the nanometer range is introduced and their excellent, highly reproducible, and tunable optical response is demonstrated. Varying the silica shell thickness, the excitation energies of the single NP plasmon modes can be tuned in a broad spectral range between 2.55 and 3.25 eV. Most importantly, a strong coherent coupling of the surface plasmons is revealed at the silver–silica interface with Mie resonances at the silica–vacuum interface leading to a significant field enhancement at the encapsulated NP surface in the range of 100% at shell thicknesses t ≃ 20 nm. Consequently, the synthesis method and the field enhancement open pathways to a widespread use of silver NPs in plasmonic applications including photonic crystals and may be transferred to other non-precious metals. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Optical Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
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    Axion Mie theory of electron energy loss spectroscopy in topological insulators
    (Amsterdam : SciPost Foundation, 2021) Schultz, Johannes; Nogueira, Flavio S.; Büchner, Bernd; van den Brink, Jeroen; Lubk, Axel
    Electronic topological states of matter exhibit novel types of responses to electromagnetic fields. The response of strong topological insulators, for instance, is characterized by a so-called axion term in the electromagnetic Lagrangian which is ultimately due to the presence of topological surface states. Here we develop the axion Mie theory for the electromagnetic response of spherical particles including arbitrary sources of fields, i.e., charge and current distributions. We derive an axion induced mixing of transverse magnetic and transverse electric modes which are experimentally detectable through small induced rotations of the field vectors. Our results extend upon previous analyses of the problem. Our main focus is on the experimentally relevant problem of electron energy loss spectroscopy in topological insulators, a technique that has so far not yet been used to detect the axion electromagnetic response in these materials.
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    Three-Dimensional Composition and Electric Potential Mapping of III–V Core–Multishell Nanowires by Correlative STEM and Holographic Tomography
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publ., 2018-7-13) Wolf, Daniel; Hübner, René; Niermann, Tore; Sturm, Sebastian; Prete, Paola; Lovergine, Nico; Büchner, Bernd; Lubk, Axel
    The nondestructive characterization of nanoscale devices, such as those based on semiconductor nanowires, in terms of functional potentials is crucial for correlating device properties with their morphological/materials features, as well as for precisely tuning and optimizing their growth process. Electron holographic tomography (EHT) has been used in the past to reconstruct the total potential distribution in three-dimension but hitherto lacked a quantitative approach to separate potential variations due to chemical composition changes (mean inner potential, MIP) and space charges. In this Letter, we combine and correlate EHT and high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) tomography on an individual ⟨111⟩ oriented GaAs–AlGaAs core–multishell nanowire (NW). We obtain excellent agreement between both methods in terms of the determined Al concentration within the AlGaAs shell, as well as thickness variations of the few nanometer thin GaAs shell acting as quantum well tube. Subtracting the MIP determined from the STEM tomogram, enables us to observe functional potentials at the NW surfaces and at the Au–NW interface, both ascribed to surface/interface pinning of the semiconductor Fermi level.
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    Chromium Trihalides CrX3 (X = Cl, Br, I): Direct Deposition of Micro- and Nanosheets on Substrates by Chemical Vapor Transport
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2019) Grönke, Martin; Buschbeck, Benjamin; Schmidt, Peer; Valldor, Martin; Oswald, Steffen; Hao, Qi; Lubk, Axel; Wolf, Daniel; Steiner, Udo; Büchner, Bernd; Hampel, Silke
    The experimental observation of intrinsic ferromagnetism in single layered chromium trihalides CrX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) has gained outstanding attention recently due to their possible implementation in spintronic devices. However, the reproducible preparation of highly crystalline chromium(III) halide nanolayers without stacking faults is still an experimental challenge. As chromium trihalides consist of adjacent layers with weak interlayer coupling, the preparation of ultrathin CrX3 nanosheets directly on substrates via vapor transport proves as an advantageous synthesis technique. It is demonstrated that vapor growth of ultrathin highly crystalline CrX3 micro- and nanosheets succeeds directly on yttrium stabilized zirconia substrates in a one-step process via chemical vapor transport (CVT) in temperature gradients of 100 K (600 °C → 500 °C for CrCl3 and 650 °C → 550 °C for CrBr3 or CrI3) without a need for subsequent delamination. Due to simulation results, optimization of synthesis conditions is realized and phase pure CrX3 nanosheets with thicknesses ≤25 nm are obtained via short term CVT. The nanosheets morphology, crystallinity, and phase purity are analyzed by several techniques, including microscopy, diffraction, and spectroscopy. Furthermore, a potential subsequent delamination technique is demonstrated to give fast access to CrX3 monolayers using the example of CrCl3. © 2018 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim