ZnSe nanowires have been synthesized by thermal evaporation of ZnSe powders on gold-coated Al2O3( 0 0 0 1) substrates and then sheathed with TiO2 by sputtering. Our results show that sheathing Zn nanowires with thin TiO2 layers can significantly enhance the photoluminescence (PL) emission intensity. XPS analysis results suggest that the PL enhancement is attributed to increases in the concentrations of deep levels such as oxygen and titanium interstitials as well as the density of interface states. The PL emission of ZnSe nanowires is also enhanced by thermal annealing. Annealing in an argon atmosphere is more efficient in enhancing the PL emission than annealing in an oxygen atmosphere. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.