Highly sensitive, large-area and uniform surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates based on gold nanoparticles grown on Ge wafer have been fabricated by a one-step green reaction. The results showed that these substrates exhibited admirable performance in the low concentration detection (1 x 10(-7) M) of Rhodamine 6G with the enhancement factor of 4.5 x 10(6) and remarkable uniformity with relative standard deviation less than 8%. The uniform enhancement was also obtained in the aqueous detection of malachite green. During the experiments, the Raman spectra were recorded in the solution to pursue the uniformity, reproducibility and stability of signals. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.