@article { author = {S. Varma, Ranjana and Kothari, D.C. and Santra, S. and Thomas, R.G. and Tewari, R. and Neogy, S. and Suchand Sandeep, C.S. and Philip, Reji and Kanjilal, D.}, title = {Ag Nano-composite Glasses Synthesized By Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation}, journal = {Advanced Materials Letters}, volume = {6}, number = {4}, pages = {348-353}, year = {2015}, publisher = {International Association of Advanced Materials}, issn = {0976-3961}, eissn = {0976-397X}, doi = {10.5185/amlett.2015.5715}, abstract = {In the present work, we have used swift heavy ions (SHI) irradiation and post irradiation annealing to synthesize Ag nanoparticles in fused silica. Fused silica samples deposited with 15 nm of Ag film were irradiated using SHI beam of 120 MeV Ag 9+ ions at different fluences and post irradiation annealing was done at 500 °C in air for 30 min. The samples were characterized using UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS), GAXRD, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and open aperture z-scan measurements. The signature of Ag nanoparticles was observed in optical absorption spectra and the average size of the Ag nanoparticles was estimated using Mie’s theory. The size of the nanoparticles (~3 nm) was also confirmed from the GAXRD and TEM measurements. RBS results for Ag/SiO2 irradiated with the fluence of 5 x10 13 ions/cm 2 shows the decrease in slope at the interface of the Ag profile, indicating a partial mixing at a fluence of 5 x10 13  ions/cm 2 . Open aperture z-scan measurement of Ag/SiO2 SHI irradiated sample after annealing shows a saturation behavior, indicating that the sample is optically non-linear. The sample shows saturation behavior but does not show optical limiting behavior, which indicates that the size and number density of nanoparticles are low. The ability to control the particle size using ion beam technique as a function of fluence and observed nonlinearity results provide concrete evidence that Ag nano composite glasses can be used in nonlinear and optical limiting application.}, keywords = {Ag nanoparticles,swift heavy ion irradiation,RBS,TEM,Z,scan.&nbsp}, url = {https://aml.iaamonline.org/article_14661.html}, eprint = {https://aml.iaamonline.org/article_14661_7f9c1083fc952c42f3f44fdcc93bac45.pdf} }