Controlled modification of optical and structural properties of glass with embedded silver nanoparticles by nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation

Glass with embedded spherical silver nanoparticles of ~15 nm in radius contained in a layer with thickness of ~20 mu m was irradiated using a nanosecond (36 ns) pulsed laser at 532 nm. Laser irradiation led to the formation of a thin surface film containing uniformly distributed nanoparticles - with an increase in the overall average nanoparticle size. Increasing the applied number of pulses to the sample resulted in the increase of the average size of the nanoparticles from 15 nm to 35 - 70 nm in radius, and narrowing of the surface plasmon band compared to the absorption spectra of the original glass sample. The influence of the applied number of laser pulses on the optical and structural properties of such a recipient nanocomposite was investigated.