Thermally induced Ostwald ripening of mesoporous Ge nanostructures.

Mesoporous germanium (Ge) is a new nanostructured material with a very high potential for numerous applications. Thermally induced structural evolution of this nanomaterial is a key point for many high-temperature processes, such as epitaxy, for example, in which it can be involved. In this work, we investigate these structural changes occurring during thermal annealing in vacuum in temperature range between 250 and 650 °C. The influences of the annealing temperature and time as well as of the initial porous layer thickness on the morphology reorganization of the mesoporous Ge layer are described in detail. The obtained results are discussed in terms of Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]