The role of microstructure and silver nanoparticles on dielectric and optical properties of soda-lime silicate glasses

Optical absorption, microspectrophotometry, thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) techniques, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations were applied to multicomponent soda-lime silicate (SLS) glasses subjected to chemical, thermal, and mechanical treatments. Stretching of the silver-exchanged samples, annealed in H ₂-atmosphere before deformation, induces secondary phase separation in the matrix and a bimodal size-distribution of the silver nanoparticles the largest of which are changing from spheres to prolate spheroids. These structure alterations cause drastic changes of TSDC and optical absorption spectra. The results obtained confirm the concept of a multimode Na⁺-motion in these glasses. The deformation of in-hydrogen-annealed samples induces new phenomena and, as consequence-new applications