Nanowires (NWs) of metal oxides (Fe(2)O(3), CuO, V(2)O(5) and ZnO) were grown by an efficient non-catalytic economically favorable method based on resistive heating of pure metal wires or foils at ambient conditions. The growth rate of iron oxide NWs exceeds 100 nm s(-1). Produced NWs were typically 1-5 microm long with diameters from 10 to 50 nm. The produced metal oxide NWs were characterized by means of SEM, TEM, EDX, XPS and Raman techniques. The field emission measurements from the as-produced CuO NWs were found to have a threshold field as low as 4 V microm(-1) at 0.01 mA cm(-2). The formation mechanism of the NWs is discussed.

The resonance behavior and the dispersion of the ${\mathrm{G}}^{\prime }$ line in double-wall carbon nanotubes were investigated by multifrequency Raman scattering. Using a large number of laser lines for excitation, the dispersion for the response from the inner tubes and from the outer tubes was found to be 85 and $99{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}∕\mathrm{eV}$, respectively. The reduction of the dispersion for the inner tubes is a consequence of their high curvature and suggests a flattening of the phonon dispersion at the $K$ point in the Brillouin zone. The frequency position for the ${\mathrm{G}}^{\prime }$ line of the inner tubes for a given laser energy was likewise strongly reduced as compared to values expected from tubes with standard diameter. This was again assigned to the strong curvature of the small-diameter inner tubes. Finally, the ${\mathrm{G}}^{\prime }$ line scattering cross sections for the outer tubes and for the inner tubes revealed resonances according to the transitions between the corresponding Van Hove singularities. The response from the inner tubes was particularly strong, in good agreement with the expected resonance enhancement resulting from their high curvature.