Water-repellent films are used in cameras and sensors for a variety of applications, such as antifouling and cleaning properties. The conventional coating methods have several problems. In this study, we propose a new sputtering method, plasma immersion lattice target sputtering (PILTS), to fabricate the films with highly durable and water-repellent. Aluminum oxide thin films were prepared on Si (100) substrates using the PILTS method, and the contact angle and surface morphology of the films were evaluated. Moreover, we carried out the surface modification by etching. As a result, an aluminum oxide thin film with a contact angle of 152° was successfully obtained by the PILTS method.

We attempted to deposit nitrogen-contained titanium oxide films by exposing titanium surfaces to a reactive plasma discharge produced by a multi-capillary plasma source in nitrogen monoxide (NO) gas diluted by a carrier gas. The optical absorption spectra of the resulting films exhibited a band at higher energy associated with undoped titanium oxide, and a band at lower energy attributed to nitrogen-containing titanium oxide. In the corresponding X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra, the optical absorption edge positions were found to decrease with increasing TiNO/Ti^4＋ area ratio, indicating band narrowing due to oxygen substitution of nitrogen atoms. This method of simultaneously nitriding and oxidizing titanium is expected to be an effective approach for plasma-assisted formation of titanium oxy-nitride films.

The present current topic demonstrates the formation of novel graphene-based 3D macro structures having lateral sizes of several tens of micrometers, i.e., crown-cork-like structures consisting of stacks of curved multilayer graphene via a chemical vapor deposition method. Based on the elemental, structural and morphological analyses using Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and X-ray diffraction, its origin and formation mechanism are fully discussed. Employing a solid-state reaction using Fe as both a catalyst and a substrate, we have found a new growth form in the precipitation process of C in Fe, established a synthesis method, and obtained new hybrid structures that can be used for electromagnetic response substances and long-term anti-corrosion coatings.

Understanding reaction dynamics at the nanoscale in self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) has a significant impact on the design and application of next-generation organic materials. Methyl ester substituted aromatic thiolate SAMs on gold substrates and nanoparticles (NPs) exhibit site-selective chemical bond scission and electron transfer. Using soft X-ray excitation, we investigated ion desorption and electron transfer dynamics of planar SAMs of aromatic thiolates and their condensed NP films. Partial ion yield spectra confirmed selective bond scission at methoxy groups, though the NP films showed reduced selectivity due to secondary processes. Auger electron spectroscopy revealed ultrafast electron transfer from the methyl ester group through the aromatic molecular framework to the gold surfaces. These findings support soft X-rays as a “molecular scalpel” and demonstrate that flat SAMs serve as effective platforms for electron transfer studies.

Directed motion of an atomic lattice on a substrate with impurity-like disorder is studied using numerical simulations based on an extended Frenkel-Kontorova model. The directed motion of the lattice is caused by spatiotemporal modulation of natural length between atoms. Even in the presence of surface disorder due to impurities, the directed motion occurs when the strength of impurity potential is smaller than a certain value. For strong impurity potential cases, however, the impurity pinning effect is dominant for the interaction between the atomic lattice and the substrate, and then no directed motion occurs. Using a scaling analysis based on an impurity pinning theory, the physical nature of the directed motion of atomic lattices in the disordered interfacial system is clarified.

The metal–insulator transition (MIT) in VO₂ is strongly governed by nanoscale morphology and structural defects. To elucidate the microscopic origin of this transition, we investigated the relationship between surface structure and MIT dynamics in VO₂ thin films epitaxially grown on TiO₂(110) via pulsed laser deposition. Operando X-ray diffraction confirmed a structural transformation from the monoclinic (insulating) to rutile (metallic) phase. Infrared scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) enabled direct visualization of individual anisotropic nanodomains with nanoscale resolution. The contrast in near-field amplitude allowed us to spatially resolve metallic and insulating phases across the surface. We observed that metallic domains nucleate and expand heterogeneously, influenced by local grain geometry and anisotropic strain along the [001] direction. These findings provide insight into the interplay between structural features and phase transition pathways in strongly correlated oxide systems.