The Band Gap of Silver Nanoparticles in Ag/Ag2O Composites Synthesized by Oxygen Plasma Treatment of Silver Thin Films

In this paper, we explore the band gap properties of Ag/Ag2O composites synthesized by oxygen plasma treatment of silver thin films as well as the band gap properties of silver nanostructures formed within these composites. The band gap of silver nanoparticles was calculated based on a previous unique result including that the luminescence spectra of the prepared Ag/Ag2O composites contain only features that characterize the various structures of silver nanoparticles. The results obtained showed the formation of energy bands of silver nanoparticles within the energy band structure of the prepared films. Based on the observed features of the luminescence spectra, distinguished energy gaps were found for both individual silver nanoparticles and larger silver nanoparticles. Moreover, the energy gap of individual silver nanoparticles is not significantly affected by neither the size of the silver oxide particles nor the power of the oxygen plasma.