Nanosecond infrared laser-induced precipitation of silver nanoparticles in glass

In this work, we report our results on the effect of Ag nanoparticles precipitation in soda-lime glass (doped with silver ions) during irradiation with nanosecond Nd:YAG laser pulses at 1064nm. Using on-line, optical extinction measurements and exploiting the localized surface plasmon resonance, we studied the evolution of nanoparticles’ radius, their concentration and identified several characteristic phases of their growth. The studied nanoparticles differ in size and concentration depending on the local fluence within the laser beam. These processes are accompanied by a continuous decrease of the dielectric constant of the glass matrix which reflects the reduction of concentration of silver ions.