Fig. 2

Comparison between non-decorated and decorated nanowires. Photographs of the products right after being collected from the cold finger, one from an ablated pellet containing B₂O₃:MgO (a) and one from a pellet containing B₂O₃:MgO:Au (b). Two differences can be noticed, when Au is added the yield increases and the product acquires a bright pink coloration. Additionally, the product on b has a fibrous sponge-like appearance. c A SEM micrograph of the product in a. Although it is possible to find nanowires, they are rarely found tangled up in large numbers. At least three nanowires can be seen in the micrograph. d SEM micrograph of the product in b. Here the nanowires are much more abundant. Bundles with numerous nanowires are easy to locate. e TEM micrograph of the product in a. The nanowires are amorphous. They have a slightly rough fiber-like morphology which can be identified as the morphological type depicted in Fig. 1a. f TEM micrograph of the product in b. The morphology of the nanowires is similar to the case without Au but here the nanowires are decorated with numerous nanoparticles which appear only when pure Au is added to the target. The morphology corresponds to the type depicted in Fig. 1b