We report on the effects of glass substrate temperature on the crystal structure and morphology of tungsten (W)-doped ZnO nanostructures synthesized by pulsed-laser deposition. X-ray diffraction analysis data shows that the W-doped ZnO thin films exhibit a strongly preferred orientation along a c-axis (000L) plane, while scanning electron and atomic force microscopes reveal that well-aligned W-doped ZnO nanorods with unique shape were directly and successfully synthesized at substrate temperature of 550 degrees C and 600 degrees C without any underlying catalyst or template. Possible growth mechanism of these nanorods is suggested and discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.