Chemical aspects in copper-implanted fused silica and soda-lime glasses

Fused silica and soda-lime glasses were implanted with copper, copper+nitrogen and copper+argon. Samples were characterized primarily by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray-excited Auger electron spectroscopy. Measurements of optical absorption, transmission electron microscopy, secondary-ion mass spectrometry, and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry were also carried out. Copper nanocluster formation and their size have been found to depend on the reactivity of the host vitreous matrix as well as on the implanted metal concentration. In the copper+nitrogen-implanted fused silica a chemical interaction between copper and nitrogen together with the dissolution of the metallic nanoclusters has been observed. In the copper+nitrogen-implanted soda-lime glass interactions between substrate and nitrogen occur without the dissolution of copper precipitates. The dissolution of copper clusters is induced in the soda-lime glass when implantation with argon (which does not chemically react with the host glass substrate) is made.