Interstitial O2 distribution in amorphous SiO2 nanoparticles determined by Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy

S. Agnello (1) , Diego Di Francesca (2) , A. Alessi (1) , G. Iovino (1) , Sylvain Girard (2) , Aziz Boukenter (2) , Youcef Ouerdane (2)

1 Università degli studi di Palermo - University of Palermo
2 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien

The O2 content and emission properties in silica nanoparticles after thermal treatments in oxygen rich atmosphere have been investigated by Raman and photoluminescence measurements. The nanoparticles have different sizes with average diameter ranging from 7 up to 40 nm. It is found that O2 concentration in nanoparticles monotonically increases with nanoparticles size. This finding is independent on the measurement technique and evidences that oxygen molecules are not present in all the nanoparticles volume. This dependence is interpreted on the basis of a structural model for nanoparticles consisting of a core region able to host the oxygen molecules and a surface shell of fixed size and free from O2.

Domains: Optics / Photonic

S. Agnello, Diego Di Francesca, A. Alessi, G. Iovino, Sylvain Girard, et al.. Interstitial O2 distribution in amorphous SiO2 nanoparticles determined by Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Journal of Applied Physics, 2013, 114 (10), pp.104305. ⟨10.1063/1.4820940⟩. ⟨ujm-00862267⟩