Amorphous silica nanowires: Intensive blue light emitters

We report large-scale synthesis of silica nanowires (SiONWs) using an excimer laser ablation method. Silica was produced in the form of amorphous nanowires at a diameter of similar to 15 nm and a length up to hundreds micrometers. The SiONWs emit stable and high brightness blue light at energies of 2.65 and 3.0 eV. The intensity of the emission is two orders of magnitude higher than that of porous silicon. The SiONWs may have potential applications in high-resolution optical heads of scanning near-field optical microscope or nanointerconnections in future integrated optical devices. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)04247-8].