Destructive Clustering of Metal Nanoparticles in Chalcogenide and Oxide Glassy Matrices.

M V Shpotyuk,S Kozyukhin,J Cebulski,O I Shpotyuk

doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1250-y

Abstract

The energetic χ-criterion is developed to parameterize difference in the origin of high-order optical non-linearity associated with metallic atoms (Cu, Ag, Au) embedded destructively in oxide- and chalcogenide glasses. Within this approach, it is unambiguously proved that covalent-bonded networks of soft semiconductor chalcogenides exemplified by binary As(Ge)–S(Se) glasses differ essentially from those typical for hard dielectric oxides like vitreous silica by impossibility to accommodate pure agglomerates of metallic nanoparticles. In an excellence according to known experimental data, it is suggested that destructive clustering of nanoparticles is possible in Cu-, Ag-, and Au-ion-implanted dielectric oxide glass media, possessing a strongly negative χ-criterion. Some recent speculations trying to ascribe equally this ability to soft chalcogenide glasses despite an obvious difference in the corresponding bond dissociation energies have been disclosed and criticized as inconclusive.

Highlights

Nanocomposite materials containing functional nanoscalelength inhomogeneities created by embedded metal nanoparticles (MNP) attract a high attention in nowadays materials science community as perspective candidates for advanced sensing application exploring plasmon resonance effects [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
This remarkable ability of embedded M atoms predicted via large negative values of χ-criterion is in excellent harmony with known results in successful fabrication of compactly aggregated MNP with character 3–10 nm sizes in transparent oxide glass matrices exploring low-energy ion implantation technique [7,8,9]
Different origin of high-order optical non-linearity associated with MNP embedded destructively in oxide- and chalcogenide glassy environment is evidenced from chemical bond (CCB) approach, describing this effect in terms of mean molar bond energies character for inner chemical interaction between unfettered components of host glassy network and guest metal atoms (Cu, Ag, Au)

Summary

Introduction

Nanocomposite materials containing functional nanoscalelength inhomogeneities created by embedded metal nanoparticles (MNP) attract a high attention in nowadays materials science community as perspective candidates for advanced sensing application exploring plasmon resonance effects [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. In contrast to vitreous oxides, the chalcogenides allow substantial variation in their glass-forming ability without changing in network interlinking in a wide compositional range, possessing spatially homogeneous non-stoichiometric glasses in addition to stoichiometric ones [14, 15]. This feature can be a reason for essentially modified chemical interaction in metal-matrix nanocomposites, tuning the conditions for destructive MNP clustering in non-stoichiometric chalcogenide glasses

Methods

Results

Conclusion