Effect of X-ray irradiation and thermal treatment on luminescent properties of barium-phosphate glasses doped with silver and copper

Abstract It is shown experimentally that in silver- and copper-containing barium-phosphate glasses metal subnanosized luminescent molecular clusters are formed during the glass synthesis. X-ray irradiation and the subsequent thermal treatment of these glasses result in the considerable change of their luminescence spectra in visible spectral region. This effect is caused by the transformation of the charge state of molecular clusters. In the luminescence spectra of the glass doped with silver and copper simultaneously new luminescence bands appear in comparison with the spectra of glasses doped only with one metal. The reason of this can be the formation of hybrid Ag n Cu m molecular clusters. The computer simulation of the structure and optical properties of such stable clusters by TDDFT method is presented.