Nanosheets of nickel catalyzed tungsten oxide have been grown on Si (100) substrate by electron beam rapid thermal annealing (ERTA) process. The thin films of W and Ni were deposited in a conventional electron beam evaporation system under high vacuum conditions and then subjected to ERTA. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to study the systematic growth of the nanosheets. Nanosheets with a uniform thickness of 200 nm were obtained for the beam current of 9 mA with a voltage of 5 kV ERTA for 60 s. X-ray diffractograms indicate that the formation of multiple phases of nickel, nickel oxide and tungsten oxide with respect to the variation in the beam current. Vibrating sample magnetometer studies indicate that the magnetic properties of this system vary with the beam current. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.