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The conductance of the CeO2 nanowire film is found to decrease by about two orders of magnitude in air under ultraviolet illumination. Such a drastic decrease in conductance is attributed to light-induced desorption of H2O from the nanowire’s surface. When exposed in air, the surface conductivity of the nanowire increases significantly due to the adsorption of H2O. Considering the large surface-to-volume ratio of the nanowire, the conductance of the nanowire film is mainly controlled by surface conduction. Upon ultraviolet illumination, desorption of H2O results in the decrease of the conductance of the nanowire film, thus leading to the anomalous photoconductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two kinds of In2O3 nanowires (NWs), i.e., straight and tapered ones, are grown from 20-nm-thick Au/300-nm-thick In and 20-nm-thick Au/1-μm-thick In films on glass at 400 °C by a one-step annealing method, respectively. All the NWs are single crystalline. The growth of the NWs is initiated by Au catalyst particles via vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism, and an additional side growth might be responsible for the nonuniform diameters of the tapered NWs. It is revealed that a certain content of oxygen in the In film facilitates the large-scale growth of the In2O3 NWs. The field-emission studies show that the In2O3 NWs on glass have a low turn-on electric field of about 4.3 V/μm. Our growth method has potential applications in the in situ fabrication and integration of the In2O3 NWs-based devices, especially with glass as substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]