Electron spectroscopic analysis of silver nanoparticles in a soda-glass matrix

Silver ion-exchanged soda-glass samples as well as various postannealed samples were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to find out the chemical states of silver in these samples. The analysis by XPS seems to be not enough to distinguish various chemical states of silver, where, shift in binding energies due to oxidation are less or, comparable to that of overall spectrometer resolutions. To overcome this experimental constraint, here we propose a complete and novel method of chemical analysis making use of the associated Auger transitions and finding the modified Auger parameters of concerned samples. Detail lineshape analysis of the Auger transitions in silver helps further to differentiate the minute variances in the local electronic structure. The analysis seems to provide means to identify intricate chemical phases, which are quite tricky to conclude from other analytical experiments.