Silver glass nanocomposites synthesised by 200 keV Ar+ ions at oblique incidence for potential applications as filters in mid infrared region

Abstract Glass based nanocomposites with embedded noble metal nanoparticles (Ag, Au, Cu) exhibit interesting optical features that can be of immense importance while designing devices for a variety of optical applications. Silver glass nanocomposites were prepared using soda glass as host matrix by a two-step method i.e. ion-exchange followed by irradiation using low energy Argon (Ar+) ions at an angle of 50°. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) along with energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) spectroscopy were performed for morphological investigations of thus prepared nanocomposites. The structural characterization of the nanocomposites was carried out using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) which revealed their possibility to be used as IR based filters with a transmittance of about 96% over a wavelength range of 2.5–20 μm (mid-infrared region) in case of sample with 5 × 1016 Ar+ ions cm−2. UV-visible spectroscopy was utilized to calculate optical parameters like optical energy gap, urbach's energy, refractive index and its dispersion for computing useful dispersion parameters by applying single-effective-oscillator model given by Wemple and DiDomenico and in addition optical conductivity for virgin glass and silver glass nanocomposites.