Fig. 3

Nanowires with different colorations. The synthesis rounds tend to produce macroscopic amounts of nanowires with distinct colorations which depend on the composition of the ablated pellets. a A photograph of the white product from an ablated target containing B₂O₃:MgO:Co. The TEM micrograph below reveals that these nanowires are not decorated with nanoparticles. b–d Photographs of nanowires fabricated from targets containing, B₂O₃:MoO₃:Au, B₂O₃:MgO:Ag and B₂O₃:MgO:Au, their colors are bluish gray, yellow and pink respectively. A TEM micrograph of each type of nanowire is right below each photograph. They all show that these nanowires are decorated with nanoparticles. By mixing more than one pure metal or two metal oxides and a pure metal in a single target one can obtain nanowires with new colorations. In general, macroscopic quantities of nanowires without decoration are white while decorated nanowires and some nanowires with coarse morphologies have distinctive colorations