Oxygen-induced enhancement of surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles forsilver-coated soda-lime glass

Abstract

The optical properties of a silver film on soda-lime glass substrate were studied after treatment indifferent atmospheres at different temperatures. It has been shown that pre-treatment in air (at about500 °C for 1 h) can induce the enhancement of the surface plasmonresonance (SPR) of silver nanoparticles after subsequent treatment inH2. This enhancement effect decreases with decrease in the pre-treatment temperature in air up to500 °C. Alternately heat-treating the as-prepared sample in air and thenH2 results in a continuous increase of the SPR. If the treatment temperature is at or above600 °C, theSPR absorption can drastically be increased only by treatment in air without subsequent treatmentin H2. We can thus control the SPR intensity of the sample. A further experimenthas revealed that the SPR is from the silver nanoparticles formed in thesublayer of the glass substrate. Pre-treatment in air is crucial to theformation of silver nanoparticles in the sublayer after subsequent treatment inH2, which enhances the SPR.