Silica nanowire arrays have been synthesized in a large-scale when we successfully grew various Ga

2

O

3

quasi one-dimension structures in the tube furnace

via the simple method of heating the metal Ga.The nanowires are of high purity and highly oriented.Their diameters distribute from 5 nm to 12 nm

with average value of 8 nm and lengths of 300μm.The analysis shows that they are amorphous.The experiments show that the liquid Ga acts as the catalyst and the growth of SiO

2

represents some new characteristics

which traditional VLS mechanism does not own.It was also found that the moisture of the flowing argon gas is a key factor for the growth of nanowires.A possible growth model of nanowires is proposed upon these

which is distinctive from the conventional Vapor-liquid-solid(VLS)growth mechanism.Under the optical excitation of 325 nm laser

the sample exhibits two intensive and stable light emissions near the blue light wave bond

which are directly related to the defects and vacancies in the sample.Besides these two peaks

one new infrared peak at about 804 nm was first found in our experiments

whose mechanism is unknown now and will be researched in further.As an excellent optical source

the silica nanowire arrays can find applications in future opto-electronic nanodevices.Additionally

single silica nanowire may be used in scanning near field optical microscope as the alternative probes.Finally

because of the high flexibility of the SiO

2

nanowire bundles they can also be used in the future nano-optical fiber

which is one of important segments in the information transfer.So research in the synthesis of silica nanowires and the characteristic of PL of them are of remarkable importance.