Evolution of Thin Silver Films Under Exposure to Laser Pulses In the Air

Eduard Ageev, Ilnur Aminov, Mikhail Baranov, Yaroslav Golubev, Galina Odintsova, and Pavel Varlamov

January, 2017. Published in the Optical and Quantum Electronics (Q3).

Abstract: The process of formation and the characteristics of silver nanostructures created by pulsed laser annealing in the air are studied. Nanoparticles were obtained by way of irradiating thin silver films (62 and 175 nm) on the dielectric (glass) base with an excimer laser emission (λ = 193 nm). Created nanostructures were studied using the methods of scanning electron microscopy and optical spectrometry, the dependencies of the mean size of obtained nanoparticles and the position of their plasmonic resonance on the number of laser pulses (ranging from 270 to 30,000) were drawn out. Based on the shift of the plasmonic resonance, the use of given nanostructures as optical components with narrow-band extinction (for example, notch filter), the magnitude and center frequency of which can be specified in advance, is suggested.