Synthesis of an embedded metal nanoparticle planar assembly by low-energy ion irradiation of a thin discontinuous metal film sandwiched in silica

Abstract

Synthesis of a planar assembly of metal nanoparticles embedded in silica by low-energy ion irradiation is presented here. Argon ions of 350 keV were used to irradiate SiO2/Au/SiO2 and SiO2/Ag/SiO2 tri-layered films, with oxide thicknesses of 40 nm and metal layer thickness of 2 nm, to synthesize well isolated nanoparticles without the need of annealing. The nanoparticles have an average diameter of about 6 nm as revealed by transmission electron microscopy. Simulations by three-dimensional kinetic lattice Monte Carlo were performed to understand the ion-induced nanoparticle array formation from the initially percolated as-deposited metal layer embedded in the silica matrix.