Investigation of structural and compositional changes in silver-doped GeO2 thin films

The processes going on in silver-doped GeO2 films during air-heating were investigated by XPS, TEM, IR and UV–visible spectroscopy methods. Silver was shown to interact with the GeO2 matrix at 500–600 °C to give silver germanate which was decomposed on further heating to form GeO2 and silver nanoparticles, 10–35 nm in size, absorbing in the plasmon resonance region (λmax = 415 nm). The silver nanoparticles are located deep in the films and encapsulated by oxide particles.