Synthesis and photoluminescence properties of In2Ge2O7 nanobelts

Large-scale In2Ge2O7 nanobelts were successfully synthesized by a simple thermal evaporation method without the presence of catalyst. The process of growth of the ternary In2Ge2O7 nanobelts is based on the vapour-solid growth mechanism. Its morphology and microstructures were determined by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The as-synthesized In2Ge2O7 products are single crystals with a monoclinic thortveitite-type structure growing along the [210] direction. The nanobelts have widths of 300-500 nm, thickness of 50-70 nm and lengths ranging from several tens to several hundreds of micrometres. A strong and broad violet emission peak at about 410 nm was observed in the room temperature photoluminescence measurements