Characterization of silicate glasses doped with gold by solid-state field-assisted ion exchange

The doping of silicate glasses with transition metals (with the possibility to induce the formation of metallic nanoparticles by suitable post-exchange treatments) attracts a great attention for its potential in light waveguides technology, ultrafast nonlinear optics, luminescent and magnetic materials. Moreover, the control of the metal distribution inside the glass is a central issue for both the understanding of the incorporation process and for the definition of useful preparation protocols. In the presented experiment, gold-containing silicate glasses were prepared by solid-state field-assisted ion exchange. A metallic film of gold was deposited onto two different glass substrates by sputtering. Then, the substrates were heat-treated under intense electric field to induce diffusion of gold inside the glass network. Structural and compositional characterizations were performed by different techniques: secondary ion mass and Rutherford backscattering spectrometries, and optical absorption spectroscopy.