Germanium and gallium arsenide have long been used in semiconductor structures and electronic devices. While organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE) of gallium arsenide on germanium substrate is quite common in the solar cell industry for satellite panels, the OMVPE of germanium is still relatively uncommon. We report on the development and first use of the new organogermanium precursor, iso-butyl germane, [C4H7]GeH3, and its use for the growth of high-purity germanium films. We report how we identified useful OMVPE precursors from a larger number of compounds that were synthesized from classes of organogermanium hydrides and organogermanium halides. Finally, we report initial results on high-quality epitaxial Ge films. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.