Shape control of cathodized germanium oxide nanoparticles
Youcef A. Bioud, Etienne Paradis, Abderraouf Boucherif, Dominique Drouin, Richard Arès
Abstract
In this paper, hexagonal germanium dioxide (GeO 2 ) nanostructures with different morphologies and sizes were successfully synthesized by a simple and fast electrodeposition method. We investigated the electrochemical growth mechanism and the structural and optical properties of the products through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cathodoluminescence (CL). The results reveal that the electrodeposited GeO 2 nanostructures are pure, dense, and highly crystalline. The XRD analyses indicate that the resulting GeO 2 crystals only show peaks related to the α-quartz structure. CL measurements exhibit strong blue and green light emissions related to oxygen vacancies in the core of the GeO 2 crystals. The resulting nanostructures may have potential application in integrated optical devices in the future.