No 1, Vol. 4, 2003 
 

OPTICAL AND STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF Li, Zn, Ag and Au
NANOCLUSTERS EMBEDDED IN MgO

M.A. van Huis1, A. van Veen1, H. Schut1, S.W.H. Eijt1, B.J. Kooi2, J.Th.M. De Hosson2 and T. Hibma2

1 Interfaculty Reactor Institute, Delft University of Technology,
Mekelweg 15, NL 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands
2 Materials Science Center, University of Groningen,
Nijenborg 4, NL 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands

Abstract

Lithium, zinc, silver and gold nanoclusters (NCs) embedded in MgO were created by means of ion implantation of Li, Zn, Ag and Au ions into single crystals of MgO(100) and subsequent thermal annealing. Optical, electrical and structural properties of the NCs were investigated using optical absorption spectroscopy (OAS), high-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM). The mean nanocluster size is estimated from the broadening of the Mie plasmon optical absorption bands using the Doyle formula. These results are compared with the NC size as obtained from XRD (using the Scherrer formula) and from direct XTEM observations. The three methods are found to be in reasonable agreement with a mean size of 4.0 and 10 nm found for the Au and Ag clusters, respectively. Using TEM observations, the relative interface energies of MgO//Au and MgO//Ag interfaces are also determined. In the case of MgO//Au, they are found not to be in agreement with theoretical predictions in the literature.

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