Dual effects of LiF doping on the size evolution and luminescence properties of Ag nanoclusters in borosilicate glass

Abstract In this research, the Ag nanoclusters (Ag NCs) dispersed borosilicate glasses with the absence and presence of LiF were prepared by the melt-quenching method. The absorption, photoluminescence, FTIR results indicated that the doping of LiF plays dual effects on the size evaluation of Ag species: the introduction of F− and Li+ can promote and restrain the formation of Ag NCs, respectively. It was also indicated that the promotion effect of F− is overwhelming at lower LiF doping concentration, while the restrain effect of Li+ becomes dominated when increase LiF concentration to 8 mol%. Besides, our research further proved that the formation of Ag NCs is very sensitive to the presence of F content, even the introduction of rare earth ions in the form of fluoride or oxide can obviously modify the amount and size distribution of Ag NCs and thus affect the luminescence properties of the codoped glasses.