Abstract
We report photoluminescence in bulk chloride photo-thermo-refractive glass under irradiation with femtosecond laser pulses. The fluorescence originates from the bleaching of silver nanoparticles precipitating in the glass. Similarly to the conventional process of the femtosecond re-shaping of metal inclusions with diameter tens of nanometers, irradiation of the smaller nanoparticles results in a fast shrinking size with an ellipsoidal shape via photofragmentation. Under UV excitation, remaining sub-nanometer silver molecular clusters show visible and near IR fluorescence, which increases with chlorine concentration. The observed bleaching of silver nanoparticles in bulk glass-metal nanocomposite can find applications in data storage and bleaching of volume Bragg gratings.
Highlights
We report photoluminescence in bulk chloride photo-thermo-refractive glass under irradiation with femtosecond laser pulses
The fluorescence originates from the bleaching of silver nanoparticles precipitating in the glass
To the conventional process of the femtosecond re-shaping of metal inclusions with diameter tens of nanometers, irradiation of the smaller nanoparticles results in a fast shrinking size with an ellipsoidal shape via photofragmentation
Summary
Bleaching of AgNPs in glass matrix has been extensively studied [7, 9, 14] including the interaction with femtosecond laser radiation with relatively large AgNPs (>30 nm) created in glass via ion-exchange process [14,15]. Chloride PTR glass is a new holographic material, which in addition to the remarkable crystallization properties shows intense visible fluorescence under UV excitation [22] This fluorescence originates from silver molecular clusters (AgMCs) and nanoclusters, which can be created by irradiation of the PTR glass by UV continuous wave laser [23], UV [24] and IR [25] pulsed lasers.
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