Coloring of silica glass with silver nanoparticles

The possibility of doping of surface layers of optical fused silica with silver nanogranules upon heating of a thin Ag film on the silica surface by a CO₂ laser beam (P ≈ 30 W, λ = 10.6 μm) is established. The effect of exposure time on the doped layer structure has been investigated. The absorption band of the colloidal solution of Ag in silica has been studied. It is shown that this band is homogeneously broadened and its peak (at 420 nm) corresponds to the small volume filling factor (q < 0.1) at an average granule radius of about 3 nm. Based on the measurements of the radial distributions of the reflectance and refractive index over the doped region at λ = 633 nm, it is revealed that the doped layer is an area-irregular asymmetric step waveguide.