Conversion of CDW TaS$_{3}$ to superconducting TaS$_{2}$ nanowires

The synthesis of nanowires has attracted considerable interest for their potential applications in many areas of advanced nanotechnologies. Recently we have developed a simple method to fabricate nanowires of a transition metal dichalcogenide through a nondestructive reduction from one-dimensional (1D) trichalcogenide nanostructures.$^{1}$ In this report, we present results on synthesis and characterization of TaS$_{2}$ nanowires. Our approach includes the synthesis of 1D charge-density-wave (CDW) TaS$_{3}$ nanostructure precursors followed by the nondestructive and controlled adjustment of the S composition. The nanowires, as identified with scanning electron microscopy, have a rectanglelike cross section with widths of 20 to 700 nm and lengths of up to a few millimeters. TaS$_{3}$ nanowires show the canonical CDW behaviors. However, the converted TaS$_{2}$ nanowires show superconducting behavior with Tc $\sim$~ 4 K, which is different from the bulk property. $^{1}$ Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 142506 (2005).