Preparation, structure, and properties of metal nanocomposites in lithium niobate

Crystals of lithium niobate LiNbO3 are implanted with 60-keV Cu− ions at different ion fluxes to a fluence of 2 × 1017 ions/cm2. The structure and the linear and nonlinear optical properties of the implanted layers are investigated. The optical transmission and ion-induced photon spectra of the LiNbO3 crystals are measured in the course of implantation. It is revealed that the implantation brings about the formation of complex nanocomposites consisting of metallic copper nanoparticles and nanodomains of the matrix. The distributions of nanoparticles and nanodomains in the implanted layers do not correlate with each other. It is shown that the variations in the linear and nonlinear optical absorption of the nanocomposites are predominantly determined by the changes in the chemical composition and the structure of the matrix.