Self-assembly and horizontal orientation growth of VO2 nanowires

Single-crystalline vanadium dioxide (VO2) nanostructures have attracted an intense research interest recently because of their unique single-domain metal-insulator phase transition property. Synthesis of these nanostructures in the past was limited in density, alignment, or single-crystallinity. The assembly of VO2 nanowires (NWs) is desirable for a "bottom-up" approach to the engineering of intricate structures using nanoscale building blocks. Here, we report the successful synthesis of horizontally aligned VO2 NWs with a dense growth mode in the [1-100]quartz direction of a polished x-cut quartz surface using a simple vapor transport method. Our strategy of controlled growth of VO2 NWs promisingly paves the way for designing novel metal-insulator transition devices based on VO2 NWs.