Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Germanium dioxide nanowires have gained considerable interest lately [1, 2], in part this is due to the bandgap of 2.44 eV, and high index of refraction, n = 1.63 [3]. In this paper we report a simple fabrication technique for making large quantities of GeO2 wires with diameters ranging from 40 nm to >500 nm on different substrates. The nanowires show strong preferential growth at gold catalyst locations on the silicon substrate. The nanowires were grown on silicon, tungsten, quartz, and nickel substrates at locations where a ∼10 nm film of Au was deposited. Growth and diameter of the wires are strongly dependent on the background gas (room air) and the length of time exposed to air at the growth temperature. Presented here are the growth conditions, and images of the resulting wires fabricated. The products are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) as well as X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The observations show the products are crystalline GeO2 nanowires.