Examples of various types of glass and semiconductor photonic nanowires. (a) Silica-glass photonic nanowire [8]. (b) Cross-section of a random hole silica glass microstructured fiber in which the interstitial regions are used as sub-??m guiding cores [9]. (c) Cross-sections of a tapered silicaglass microstructured fiber [10] and a (d) tapered SF6-glass microstructured fiber [11]. (e) Chalcogenide