Abstract
We report the selective growth of amorphous silica nanowires on nickel nanostructures created by an atomic force microscopy nanomachining and lift-off process. Successful growth of patterned nanowire bunches or single nanowires on Si substrates has been realized by thermal annealing. The growth mechanism is found to be a combination of vapour-liquid-solid and solid-liquid-solid modes. In addition, the relationship between the nanowire length and the growth time has a nonlinear dependence.