B. Svecova

Comparison of SIMS and RBS for depth profiling of silica glasses implanted with metal ions

Ion implantation of metal ions, followed by annealing, can be used for the formation of buried layers of metal nanoparticles in glasses. Thus, photonic structures with nonlinear optical properties can be formed. In this study, three samples of silica glasses were implanted with Cu+, Ag+, or Au+ ions under the same conditions (energy 330 keV and fluence 1 × 1016 ions/cm2), and compared to three identical silica glass samples that were subsequently coimplanted with oxygen at the same depth. All the implanted glasses were annealed at 600 °C for 1 h, which leads to the formation of metal nanoparticles. The depth profiles of Cu, Ag, and Au were measured by Rutherford backscattering and by secondary ion mass spectrometry and the results are compared and discussed.

Ion Micro Beam, promising methods for interdisciplinary research

An increasing attractiveness of top-down nanotechnology using nuclear microprobe techniques have been gathered to the micro and nano patterning process for polymers. This paper presents the research activity on innovative promising techniques able to produce three- dimensional (3D) micro-structures in polymeric resists as well as to obtain images of fabricated nanostructures at Tandetron Laboratory (LT) of the Nuclear Physics Institute in Rez (Czech Republic). The Proton Beam Writing (PBW) technique was used to irradiate PMMA resist with energy of MeVs protons. The fabricated patterns were developed in chemical bath using different etching rates. An overview of micro-scale structures have been fabricated selecting the beam, the energy, the fluence and the exposition time. The produced structures were investigated by different analysis techniques among which Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy (STIM). The characterizations of the fabricated microtunnels are presented and discussed.

Optical and laser properties of new Er:Yb zinc-silicate glasses

In this work we have studied fundamental passive and active parameters of new family of erbium and ytterbium doped zinc-silicate glasses with different doping concentration and ratio of erbium and ytterbium ions. Parameters as absorption coefficient, saturation of absorption, emission wavelength, fluorescence lifetime and up-conversion spectra were measured. The laser performance was studied in end-diode pumped configuration with hemispherical resonator. As an excitation source a 30W fiber coupled 975 nm laser diode in pulsed regime was used. Laser action was achieved with four different samples of zinc-silicate glasses on wavelengths ranging from 1540nm to 1570nm. The results were compared with the properties of commercially available phosphate glasses and previous zinc-silicate glass which have similar threshold energy corresponding to 3,3mJ and 3mJ respectively. Newly designed zinc-silicate glasses prepared under improved conditions showed substantially better optical and laser properties in comparison with the previously prepared samples.