Formation of tungsten oxide nanowires by ion irradiation and vacuum annealing

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Here we reported the fabrication of tungsten oxide (WO 3− x ) nanowires by Ar + ion irradiation of WO 3 thin films followed by annealing in vacuum. The nanowire length increases with increasing irradiation fluence and with decreasing ion energy. We propose that the stress-driven diffusion of the irradiation-induced W interstitial atoms is responsible for the formation of the nanowires. Comparing to the pristine film, the fabricated nanowire film shows a 10 6 -fold enhancement in electrical conductivity, resulting from the high-density irradiation-induced vacancies on the oxygen sublattice. The nanostructure exhibits largely enhanced surface-enhanced Raman scattering effect due to the oxygen vacancy. Thus, ion irradiation provides a powerful approach for fabricating and tailoring the surface nanostructures of semiconductors.