from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Absorption and luminescence properties of silver and gold nanoclusters embedded in silica matrixes were studied experimentally. Thin SiO2 films with different amount of silver and gold were produced by co-deposition of metal and SiO2 onto the silica substrates in vacuum. Films with silver content possess three peaks in absorption spectra in near the UV range and two peaks in luminescence spectra in the visible range. We ascribed these spectral features to silver nanoclusters of different sizes that present in the film. Films containing gold particles have continuous absorption spectra in the visible and UV ranges. The luminescence was observed only in the samples with the silver content of less than 2.2%. Quenching of the luminescence in the films with larger silver content we associate with the nonradiative energy transfer between close-packed particles. Thermal annealing leads to the formation of lager particles and transforms both absorption and emission spectra of the films.
Keywords: cluster, silver, gold, thin film, dielectric matrix© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.