Post bombardment enhanced optical absorption in gold implanted silica

We have demonstrated that the post bombardment of 3.6 MeV Au implanted suprasil by 1.2 MeV boron, 2.0 MeV boron and 0.9 MeV alpha particles can induce the formation of Au nanoclusters. We have also demonstrated that post bombardment increases the annealing temperatures necessary for Au cluster formation beyond 1000 degrees C. The optical absorption band characteristic of the Au implanted suprasil was used to monitor the formation of the metallic clusters before and after post bombardment as well as st each annealing temperature.