physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters

In this Letter, a breakthrough in the fabrication of ultrathin suspended membranes of non-layered crystalline solids is presented. On the example of GaN, it is shown that focused ion beam direct “writing” in combination with photoelectrochemical etching represents a versatile tool for the design and maskless fabrication of ultrathin membranes suspended over micro/nanocolumns, the spatial architecture of the obtained structures being fully defined by the ion energy/dose and etching conditions.

The resolution of magnetic force microscopy (MFM) can be improved by coating MFM tips with magnetic layers that have a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). When bit-patterned media with a spacing of 10 nm between the magnetic islands were characterized, the tips with a PMA showed the flux from individual islands whereas the tip with no PMA could not resolve the patterns.

This Letter reports on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of regularly arranged InN microcrystals with m -plane sidewall facets. Narrow PL emission at 0.678 eV with a linewidth of ∼14 meV at 4 K and normal red shift of the PL peak energy with increasing temperature were observed. InN microcrystals were found to have a low carrier density and excellent optical properties without being adversely affected by surface electron accumulation, despite their relatively high surface area.