title: H2-induced copper and silver nanoparticle precipitation inside sol-gel silica optical fiber preforms.
abstract: Ionic copper- or silver-doped dense silica rods have been prepared by sintering sol-gel porous silica xerogels doped with ionic precursors. The precipitation of Cu or Ag nanoparticles was achieved by heat treatment under hydrogen followed by annealing under air atmosphere. The surface plasmon resonance bands of copper and silver nanoparticles have been clearly observed in the absorption spectra. The spectral positions of these bands were found to depend slightly on the particle size, which could be tuned by varying the annealing conditions. Hence, transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of spherical copper nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 3.3 to 5.6 nm. On the other hand, in the case of silver, both spherical nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 3 to 6 nm and nano-rods were obtained.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules (CNRS, UMR 8523), IRCICA (USR CNRS 3380), CERLA (FR CNRS 2416), Bâtiment P5, Université Lille 1-Sciences et Technologies, Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, 59655, France. Mohamed.Bouazaoui@univ-lille1.fr.
authors.forename: Abdallah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chahadih
authors.forename: Hicham
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: El Hamzaoui
authors.forename: Odile
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Cristini
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bigot
authors.forename: Rémy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kinowski
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bouazaoui
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Capoen