Gold nanoclusters are grown by 1.8 MeV Au^\sup{2+} implantation on c-Al\sub{2}O\sub{3}(0001)substrate and subsequent air annealing at temperatures 1273K. Post-annealed samples show plasmon resonance in the optical (561-579 nm) region for average cluster sizes ~1.72-2.4 nm. A redshift of the plasmon peak with decreasing cluster size in the post-annealed samples is assigned to the 'spillout' effect (reduction of electron density) for clusters with ~157-427 number of Au atoms fully embedded in crystalline dielectric matrix with increased polarizability in the embedded system.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0401629,
title = {'Spillout' effect in gold nanoclusters embedded in c-Al2O3(0001) matrix},
author = {S. Dhara and B. Sundaravel and T. R. Ravindran and K. G. M. Nair and C. David and B. K. Panigrahi and P. Magudapathy and K. H. Chen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0401629},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
14 Pages (figures included); Accepted in Chem. Phys. Lett (In Press)