Browsing by Author "Bek, Alpan"

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Citation - WoS: 1
Citation - Scopus: 1
Development of a selective wet-chemical etchant for precise 3D sculpting of silicon enabled by infrared non-linear laser modification
(Elsevier Sci Ltd, 2024) Borra, Mona Zolfaghari; Radfar, Behrad; Nasser, Hisham; Colakoglu, Tahir; Tokel, Onur; Turnali, Ahmet; Bek, Alpan; 169107
Recently-demonstrated high-quality three-dimensional (3D) subsurface laser processing inside crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers opens a door to a wide range of novel applications in multidisciplinary research areas. Using this technique, novel maskless micro-pillars with precise control on the surface reflection and coverage are successfully fabricated by etching the laser-processed region of the c-Si wafer. To achieve this, a particular selective wet chemical etching is developed to follow subsurface laser processing of c-Si to reveal the desired 3D structures with smooth surfaces. Here, we report the development of a novel chromium-free chemical etching recipe based on copper nitrate, which yields substantially smooth surfaces at a high etch rate and selectivity on the both laserprocessed Si surface and subsurface, i.e., without significant etching of the unmodified Si. Our results show that the etch rate and surface morphology are interrelated and strongly influenced by the composition of the adopted etching solution. After an extensive compositional study performed at room temperature, we identify an etchant with a selectivity of over 1600 times for laser-modified Si with respect to unmodified Si. We also support our findings using density functional theory calculations of HF and Cu adsorption energies, indicating significant diversity on the c-Si and laser-modified surfaces.
Citation - WoS: 0
Citation - Scopus: 0
Vertical Self-Assembly of Gold Nanoworms for Sensitive Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy-Based Trace Detection
(Amer Chemical Soc, 2025) Khan, Ghazanfar Ali; Demir, Ahmet Kemal; Demirtas, Ozge; Tasgin, Dilek Isik; Bek, Alpan; Bhatti, Arshad Saleem; Ahmed, Waqqar
The assembly of anisotropic nanoparticles into closely packed structures results in unique functionalities. Herein, we report a 3D multilayer vertical assembly of worm-shaped Au nanoparticles using a carefully regulated evaporation-induced deposition method. With the evaporation of the nanoworm (NW) suspension, the concentration of NWs in the suspension gradually increases, which generates a balance between electrostatic interactions and entropically driven attraction to produce multilayer vertical assemblies. These assemblies exhibit enhanced surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals due to the presence of a high concentration of hotspots. Moreover, in contrast to nanorods, the bent morphology of NWs creates pores in the vertical assembly, enabling the analyte molecule to penetrate the assembly and access hotspots. Picomolar to micromolar concentrations of rhodamine 6G (R6G) were detected with the NW assembly-based SERS substrate with excellent linearity and uniformity of the signal with a spot-to-spot relative standard deviation (RSD) of only 8.9%. The SERS substrates were also employed for trace detection of ammonium nitrate, which is a well-known constituent of homemade explosives. Our method of producing multilayer vertical assemblies of NWs is simple, highly sensitive, stable, and reproducible for making effective SERS sensors for the quantitative detection of analytes.