Original Paper
Observation of nanocrystals in porous stain-etched germanium
Abstract
Porous nanocrystalline films were prepared by stain etching and subsequent annealing in hydrogen at 600 °C. The structural properties of the as-etched and annealed films were investigated using Raman scattering and various X-ray techniques. It was shown that the as-etched film had a thickness of ∼2 μm and consisted of two sublayers of different porosity and amorphous-like microstructure The annealing did not change essentially the porosity and thickness but resulted in notable crystallinity transformation. The results of Raman spectroscopy and X-ray measurements and modelling revealed the presence of germanium nanocrystals with mean sizes of about 8–10 nm in the annealed films.
