Supersaturation-Driven Optical Tuning of Ag Nanocomposite Glasses for Photonics: An In Situ Optical Microspectroscopy Study

Silver nanoparticle (NP) precipitation in a melt-quenched aluminophosphate glass matrix has been studied and compared for 8 mol% and 4 mol% concentrations of both Ag 2 O and SnO dopants. The assessment is carried out by monitoring the plasmonic evolution of glass-embedded Ag NPs in real time during...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inPlasmonics (Norwell, Mass.) Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 399 - 405
Main Authors Jiménez, José A., Sendova, Mariana, Liu, Huimin, Fernández, Félix E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston Springer US 01.06.2011
Subjects
Biochemistry
Biological and Medical Physics
Biophysics
Biotechnology
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Silver
Optical materials
Phosphate glass
Nanocomposites
In situ techniques
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Silver nanoparticle (NP) precipitation in a melt-quenched aluminophosphate glass matrix has been studied and compared for 8 mol% and 4 mol% concentrations of both Ag 2 O and SnO dopants. The assessment is carried out by monitoring the plasmonic evolution of glass-embedded Ag NPs in real time during thermal treatments by in situ optical microspectroscopy and complemented by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction characterization. The time variation in the surface plasmon resonance of Ag NPs is analyzed in the framework of Mie extinction theory in connection with nanocrystal precipitation in the supersaturated solid solutions. For the higher concentration of silver and tin, nucleation and growth processes were distinguished, which appeared to be temperature- and time-dependent. Hence, favorable conditions were induced for the precipitation of a large amount of small NPs in the system. On the other hand, the nucleation and growth stages were not well separated in time for the lower concentration of dopants, resulting in Ag NPs of a broad size range. However, such less-concentrated nanocomposite allowed for the precipitation of NPs much larger than those observed for the 8% doped glass. Varying the degree of supersaturation in the system has been established as an important means for the tuning of material optical properties for photonic (nanoplasmonic) applications.
ISSN:1557-1955
1557-1963
DOI:10.1007/s11468-011-9217-4