Laser-direct-writing of molecule-like Agmx+ nanoclusters in transparent tellurite glass for 3D volumetric optical storage

Yaman Wu; Hang Lin; Renfu Li; Shisheng Lin; Chuxin Wu; Qiugui Huang; Ju Xu; Yao Cheng; Yuansheng Wang

doi:10.1039/d1nr05360d

Laser-direct-writing of molecule-like Ag_m^x+ nanoclusters in transparent tellurite glass for 3D volumetric optical storage

Nanoscale. 2021 Dec 2;13(46):19663-19670. doi: 10.1039/d1nr05360d.

Authors

Yaman Wu^{1

2}, Hang Lin^{1

3}, Renfu Li¹, Shisheng Lin^{1

3}, Chuxin Wu¹, Qiugui Huang¹, Ju Xu^{1

3}, Yao Cheng^{1

3}, Yuansheng Wang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry and Physics, Key Laboratory of Design and Assembly of Functional Nanostructures, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, P. R. China. lingh@fjirsm.ac.cn.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
³ Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350108, P. R. China.

PMID: 34816864
DOI: 10.1039/d1nr05360d

Abstract

In situ constructing program-designed nanostructures via laser-direct-writing (LDW) has proved to be a reliable strategy for optical storage (OS). Herein, a kind of low-melting Ag⁺-doped TeO₂-ZnO-Na₂O (TZN) tellurite glass has been demonstrated as an ideal LDW OS medium. Microstructural and spectroscopic studies reveal the generation of molecule-like Ag_m^x+ nanoclusters featured with a broad emission band in the orange-red region upon laser irradiation. Probing the laser-glass interaction yields evidences of the spatial distribution of Ag species responsive to laser-induced thermoelastic pressure wave oscillation, as well as the heat-driven migration/aggregation of Ag species along the radial direction of the laser spot. Raman analyses disclose the loose network of TZN-glass convenient for Ag⁺ mobility and the increased network connectivity when Ag_m^x+ nanoclusters are precipitated out. Combined with the XPS result of Ag⁺ → Ag⁰ reduction, the possible formation mechanism of Ag nanoclusters stabilized in glass has been proposed. In a proof-of-concept experiment, 3D volumetric OS in the TZN glass has been demonstrated, showing optical data encoding/decoding in the form of characters and image patterns.