Surface plasmon resonance in nano-gold antimony glass-ceramic dichroic nanocomposites: One-step synthesis and enhanced fluorescence application

A single-step melt-quench in situ thermochemical reduction technique has been used to synthesize a new series of Au° nanoparticles embedded antimony glass-ceramic (K2O-B2O3-Sb2O3-ZnO) dichroic nanocomposites. X-ray and selected area electron diffractions manifest growth of Au° nanoparticles along (2 0 0) planes. The particle sizes obtained from X-ray diffraction patterns are found to vary in the range 4-21 nm. Dichroic behavior is attributed to the elliptical shape gold nanoparticles having aspect ratio 1.2, as observed from the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. The Au° nanoparticles exhibit surface plasmon resonance band (SPR) around 600 nm, which experiences red-shifts with increasing Au concentration. These nanocomposites when co-doped with Sm2O3 and excited at 949 nm, exhibit 2-fold intensification of 636 nm red emission transition (4G5/2 → 6H9/2) due to SPR induced local field enhancement of Au° nanoparticles and are promising materials for display applications.