Selective Stimulation in Laser-Induced Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles in Nanoporous Glass

Abstract

Laser-induced synthesis of metal nanoparticles by the method of supercritical deposition provides a wide range of opportunities for implementing various strategies. In the present work, based on the example of silver nanoparticles in the pores of Vycor glass, we demonstrate that irradiation at the plasmon resonance frequency initiates preferential synthesis of a target group. In the present case, the initial ensemble of seeds characterized by a plasmon band at 440 nm was sequentially irradiated at 532 nm and then at 637 nm. This two-stage selective treatment leads to the appearance of a well-defined second peak at $${\sim}600$$ nm, which indicates significant growth of the mass fraction of the corresponding group of the particles that were initially missing. The results we obtained clearly demonstrate that the use of plasmon properties of the nanoparticles allows tuning of the properties of the synthesized ensemble in a targeted manner.