Surface-mediated absorption of (Au,Ag) alloy granular nano-composite films

The nano-composite films consisting of (Au,Ag) alloy particles embedded in the fused quartz were prepared by the RF co-sputtering technique, and the optical properties of the samples heated in Ar atmosphere and in air atmosphere were investigated. The effective dielectric function for the three-component alloy-dielectric composite system was deduced from the Clausius–Mosotti equation. The calculations from this theory gave a proper explanation for the measured optical absorptive spectra of (Au,Ag)/SiO2 nano-composite films.