A shadowed off-axis production of Ge nanoparticles in Ar gas atmosphere by pulsed laser deposition

In this work, we report on the production of Ge nanoparticles (NPs) in an inert Ar gas atmosphere by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at room temperature (RT). The direct deposition of energetic particles/droplets resulting from the ablation process of the target material has been avoided by using an original and customized off-axis shadow mask ( shadowed off-axis ) deposition set-up where the NPs deposition on the substrate takes place by means of scattering between the NPs formed in the vapor phase and the background Ar atoms. It is found that the Ar gas pressure parameter has a relevant role in the crystallization process, with better crystallinity obtained as the background Ar pressure is raised for the given experimental conditions.