Enhanced visible-light absorption from Ag2O nanoparticles in nitrogen-doped TiO2 thin films

Ion-beam-assisted deposition was used to prepare TiON thin film with ultrafine Ag2O semiconductor nanoparticles. These Ag2O nanoparticles were about 3 nm. The obtained thin films showed an obvious “red-shift” in the optical absorption spectrum. The absorption in the visible-light range is resulting from the absorption by metallic-like nanoparticles as silver changed its chemical state from Ag+ to Ag in nitrogen-doped titanium oxide matrix under visible-light illumination.