Optical Features of the Silica Sol–Gel Derived Glasses Doped with Copper Selenide Nanoparticles

Abstract

In the field of semiconductor nanooptics, copper chalcogenides have challenged a novel direction associated with nontrivial optical features in the near IR range important for applications. We consider this phenomenon in the silica sol–gel derived glasses doped with copper selenide nanoparticles. They were characterized with transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and optical absorption spectroscopy. An origin of the near IR optical features is discussed involving both the plasmon resonance concept extended to the self-doping of chalcogenides with a variable stoichiometry and the effect of Cu2+ impurity-generated intraband levels providing linear and nonlinear optical response of these materials.