Laser ablation synthesis of oxide nanowires and their properties

We report an efficient and reliable laser-ablation approach for large-scale synthesis of SnO₂ and ZnO nanowires. The nanowire growth followed the vapor-liquid-solid model. Precise control over the nanowire diameters has been achieved by using monodispersed gold clusters as the catalyst. Detailed material analysis such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to confirm the crystal structure of the nanowires. In addition, field effect transistors have been constructed based on individual SnO₂ nanowires, and excellent n-type transistor characteristics were observed. These nanowire transistors were further demonstrated to work as sensitive UV detectors.