Study of interaction of high-power Ar laser beam with Ag-doped glass

In this work, we have investigated the interaction of a high-power Ar+ laser beam, in a continuous multi-line regime, with Ag+-doped glass samples. The samples were subjected to the irradiation after the ion-exchange step. As a result of the irradiation, a peak appears in the absorption spectrum; its evolution depends on both the exposure time and the laser beam power. Interaction of the beam with the clusters causes them break into smaller ones which has been confirmed by optical absorption spectroscopy. Depending on the increment steps of the laser-beam power, different results are obtained. It is found that, in addition to the fragmentations of the nano-clusters, clusters of micro-meter size (d ∼ 3μm) are formed in the sample, if the laser power is increased in a fast regime. The fragmentation processes have been explained in the framework of the density-functional theory with stabilized jellium model.