The luminescence properties of individual silver nanoparticles in Ag/Ag2O composites synthesized by oxygen plasma treatment of silver thin films

Abstract

In this work, we present the results of a unique study that aims to detect the degradation of the individual silver nanoparticles peak in the photoluminescence spectra of the Ag/Ag2O composites synthesized by treating silver thin films manufactured by thermal evaporation method with oxygen plasma afterglow. The analysis of the spectroscopic data yielded an interesting finding that, the individual silver nanoparticles peak degradation observed in the optical absorption spectra has a mirror image in the photoluminescence spectra. In addition, we found that this degradation arises due to the mutual interaction between the individual silver nanoparticles located near the Ag2O grain shell and the larger silver nanoparticles inside the grain and it related to the silver oxide grain size.