Growth of indium oxide nanostructures by thermal evaporation

This work reports the synthesis and characterization of indium oxide nanostructures grown by thermal evaporation on silicon substrates with and without the presence of gold catalysts in the temperature range of 600 to 900 C. These structures are in the form of nanobelts and nanorods with dimensions from a few micrometers in length and less than 200 nm in width. The growth processes involved in the formation of the nanostructures are the vapor-solid (VS) and vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanisms where the former is responsible for growth when Au catalyst is used. Scanning electron microscopy was employed to characterize the morphology of nanostructures.