Titanium-induced germanium nanocones synthesized by vacuum electron-beam evaporation: growth mechanism and morphology evolution

High-vacuum electron-beam evaporation method is used for large area, metal-nucleated germanium (Ge) nanodots and nanocones on Si3N4/Si preparation. Nanodot and nanocone arrays with uniform size in bulk-quantity are synthesized using titanium (Ti) nanocrystals as nucleating center at 750 °C with different Ge deposition amount, respectively. The morphology evolution from nanodot to nanocone is studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The structure of the prepared sample is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman scattering. Ge nanocones formed by this convenient fabrication process could have potential applications on nanoelectronics and vacuum electron field emission.