Arrow-NCPt

Manipulating hyperbolic transient plasmons in a layered semiconductor

Anisotropic materials with oppositely signed dielectric tensors support hyperbolic polaritons, displaying enhanced electromagnetic localization and directional energy flow. *

However, the most reported hyperbolic phonon polaritons are difficult to apply for active electro-optical modulations and optoelectronic devices. *

In the nature communications letter “Manipulating hyperbolic transient plasmons in a layered semiconductor”, Rao Fu, Yusong Qu, Mengfei Xue, Xinghui Liu, Shengyao Chen, Yongqian Zhao, Runkun Chen, Boxuan Li, Hongming Weng, Qian Liu, Qing Dai and Jianing Chen report a dynamic topological plasmonic dispersion transition in black phosphorus (BP) via photo-induced carrier injection, i.e., transforming the iso-frequency contour from a pristine ellipsoid to a non-equilibrium hyperboloid. *

They introduce a promising approach to optically manipulate robust transient hyperbolic plasmons in the layered semiconductor black phosphorus using a dedicated ultrafast nanoscopy scheme. Optical pumping allows the BP’s IFCs to topologically transit from the pristine ellipsoid to the non-equilibrium hyperboloid, exhibiting exotic non-equilibrium hyperbolic plasmon properties, such as the optically tunable plasmonic dispersion and the coexistence of different transient plasmonic modes. *

Their work also demonstrates the peculiar transient plasmonic properties of the studied layered semiconductor, such as the ultrafast transition, low propagation losses, efficient optical emission from the black phosphorus’s edges, and the characterization of different transient plasmon modes. *

The results that Rao Fu et al. present may be relevant for the development of future optoelectronic applications. *

NanoWorld® ARROW-NCPt AFM probes with a Pt/Ir coating were used for the characterization with ultrafast nanoscopy. The pump and probe pulses were spatially overlapped on the Platinum/Iridium coated Arrow probe through a parabolic mirror of a commercial scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope. *

Fig. 4 from Rao Fu et al. “Manipulating hyperbolic transient plasmons in a layered semiconductor”:Dynamic analysis of the transient plasmons. a Normalized near-field amplitude s3/s3,Si of a 280-nm-thick BP slab for twelve delay times τ. Scale bar, 1 µm. b Near-field amplitude curves for the corresponding twelve different delay times τ in a. c Dynamics of the relative near-field intensity of the first (∆S1) and the second bright strip (∆S2) in b. Opened circles are the experimental data, and solid lines are bi-exponential fitting for ∆S1 and exponential fitting for ∆S2, respectively. d Dynamics of the near-field amplitude s3 from the black circle in a. The inset displays the s3 at τ = −2 to 6 ps, and the dashed line marks the s3 level of the pristine state. NanoWorld® ARROW-NCPt AFM probes with a Pt/Ir coating were used for the characterization with ultrafast nanoscopy. The pump and probe pulses were spatially overlapped on the Pt/Ir coated Arrow probe through a parabolic mirror of a commercial scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope. — Fig. 4 from Rao Fu et al. “Manipulating hyperbolic transient plasmons in a layered semiconductor”:
Dynamic analysis of the transient plasmons.
a Normalized near-field amplitude s3/s3,Si of a 280-nm-thick BP slab for twelve delay times τ. Scale bar, 1 µm. b Near-field amplitude curves for the corresponding twelve different delay times τ in a. c Dynamics of the relative near-field intensity of the first (∆S1) and the second bright strip (∆S2) in b. Opened circles are the experimental data, and solid lines are bi-exponential fitting for ∆S1 and exponential fitting for ∆S2, respectively. d Dynamics of the near-field amplitude s3 from the black circle in a. The inset displays the s3 at τ = −2 to 6 ps, and the dashed line marks the s3 level of the pristine state.

*Rao Fu, Yusong Qu, Mengfei Xue, Xinghui Liu, Shengyao Chen, Yongqian Zhao, Runkun Chen, Boxuan Li, Hongming Weng, Qian Liu, Qing Dai and Jianing Chen
Manipulating hyperbolic transient plasmons in a layered semiconductor
Nature Communications volume 15, Article number: 709 (2024)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44971-3

Please follow this external link to read the full article: https://rdcu.be/dBD85

The article “Manipulating hyperbolic transient plasmons in a layered semiconductor” by Rao Fu, Yusong Qu, Mengfei Xue, Xinghui Liu, Shengyao Chen, Yongqian Zhao, Runkun Chen, Boxuan Li, Hongming Weng, Qian Liu, Qing Dai and Jianing Chen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Optimized positioning through maximized tip visibility – Arrow AFM probes screencast passes 500 views mark

The screencast about NanoWorld Arrow Silicon AFM probes held byNanoWorld AG CEO Manfred Detterbeck has just passed the 500 views mark. Congratulations Manfred!

NanoWorld Arrow™ AFM probes are designed for easy AFM tip positioning and high resolution AFM imaging and are very popular with AFM users due to the highly symetric scans that are possible with these AFM probes because of their special tip shape. They fit to all well-known commercial SPMs (Scanning Probe Microscopes) and AFMs (Atomic Force Microscopes). The Arrow AFM probe consists of an AFM probe support chip with an AFM cantilever which has a tetrahedral AFM tip at its triangular free end.

The Arrow AFM probe is entirely made of monolithic, highly doped silicon.

The unique Arrow™ shape of the AFM cantilever with the AFM tip always placed at the very end of the AFM cantilever allows easy positioning of the AFM tip on the area of interest.
The Arrow AFM probes are available for non-contact mode, contact mode and force modulation mode imaging and are also available with a conductive platinum iridum coating. Furthermore the Arrow™ AFM probe series also includes a range of tipless AFM cantilevers and AFM cantilever arrays as well as dedicated ultra-high frequency Arrow AFM probes for high speed AFM.

To find out more about the different variations please have a look at:

https://www.nanoworld.com/arrow-afm-tips

You can also find various application examples for the Arrow AFM probes in the NanoWorld blog. For a selection of these articles just click on the “Arrow AFM probes” tag on the bottom of this blog entry.

Quantification of electron accumulation at grain boundaries in perovskite polycrystalline films by correlative infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging and Kelvin probe force microscopy

Organic-inorganic halide perovskites are materials of high interest for the development of solar cells.

Learning more about the relationship between the electrical properties and the chemical compositions of perovskite at the nanoscale can help to understand how the interrelations of both can affect device performance and contribute to an understanding on how to best design perovskite active layer structures.*

For the article “Quantification of electron accumulation at grain boundaries in perovskite polycrystalline films by correlative infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging and Kelvin probe force microscopy” Ting-Xiao Qin, En-Ming You, Mao-Xin Zhang, Peng Zheng, Xiao-Feng Huang, Song-Yuan Ding, Bing-Wei Mao and Zhong-Qun Tian used correlative infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging ( IR-spectroscopy ) by scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy ( s-SNOM ) and Kelvin probe force microscopy ( KPFM ) to contribute to the discussion whether nanometer-sized grain boundaries (GBs) in polycrystalline perovskite films play a positive or negative role in solar cell performance.*

The integrated KPFM and s-SNOM measurements were performed by the authors to acquire the surface potential and infrared near-field image simultaneously through a single-pass scan and thereby learn more about the relationships between the electrical properties and spectral information at the grain boundaries of the investigated material ( polycrystalline CH₃NH₃Pbl₃ perovskite films ).*

The results of the correlated s-SNOM and KPFM imaging presented in the article show that the electron accumulations are enhanced at the grain boundaries (GBs) of the investigated polycrystalline perovskite film, particularly under light illumination which would assist in electron-hole separation and therefore would be a positive influence on the performance of the solar cell.*

NanoWorld conductive platinum-iridium coated Arrow AFM probes ( Arrow-NCPt ) were used to perform the s-SNOM IR imaging.

Figure 4 from “Quantification of electron accumulation at grain boundaries in perovskite polycrystalline films by correlative infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging and Kelvin probe force microscopy” by Ting-Xiao Qin et al.
Correlative KPFM and s-SNOM nanoimaging on perovskite.
a AFM topography (1 μm × 1 μm); b Contact potential difference (CPD); and c simultaneously acquired infrared near-field image; d one-dimensional line profiles of the topography, CPD and infrared near-field amplitude along the white dashed lines marked in a–c. The scale bars are 200 nm.
NanoWorld Arrow-NCPt AFM probes were used to perform the s-SNOM IR imaging — Figure 4 from “Quantification of electron accumulation at grain boundaries in perovskite polycrystalline films by correlative infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging and Kelvin probe force microscopy” by Ting-Xiao Qin et al.
**Correlative KPFM and s-SNOM nanoimaging on perovskite**.
a AFM topography (1 μm × 1 μm); b Contact potential difference (CPD); and c simultaneously acquired infrared near-field image; d one-dimensional line profiles of the topography, CPD and infrared near-field amplitude along the white dashed lines marked in a–c. The scale bars are 200 nm.

*Ting-Xiao Qin, En-Ming You, Mao-Xin Zhang, Peng Zheng, Xiao-Feng Huang, Song-Yuan Ding, Bing-Wei Mao and Zhong-Qun Tian
Quantification of electron accumulation at grain boundaries in perovskite polycrystalline films by correlative infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging and Kelvin probe force microscopy
Light: Science & Applications volume 10, Article number: 84 (2021)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-021-00524-7

Please follow the external link to read the whole article: https://rdcu.be/clg7f

Open Access : The article “Quantification of electron accumulation at grain boundaries in perovskite polycrystalline films by correlative infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging and Kelvin probe force microscopy” by Ting-Xiao Qin, En-Ming You, Mao-Xin Zhang, Peng Zheng, Xiao-Feng Huang, Song-Yuan Ding, Bing-Wei Mao and Zhong-Qun Tian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.