Au-assisted growth, Raman spectra, and photoluminescence of Mg2SiO4 nanowires

Abstract

We have prepared Mg2SiO4 nanowires by a thermal heating method with Au-coated substrates gathering the products. We investigated the effect of the Au layer thickness on the nanowire morphology using scanning electron microscopy, suggesting a possible growth mechanism of Mg2SiO4 nanowires. XRD spectra and lattice-resolved TEM images indicated that the nanowires had an orthorhombic Mg2SiO4 phase. For the first time, we report the Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of Mg2SiO4 nanowires. Raman lines corresponding to the SiO4 group from Mg2SnO4 were observed. The PL measurement with a Gaussian fitting exhibited visible light emission bands centered at 2.03, 2.21, 2.45, and 2.95 eV.