GISAXS study of gold implanted fused silica

To explore the possibility of tuning the surface and shape of metal nanocrystals, gold ions were implanted in glass and the samples were subsequently annealed in air. The grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering technique with synchrotron light was used to study the morphology and the distribution of the gold nanoparticles formed in the substrate. Samples of fused silica implanted to the highest doses but without annealing, already begin to show signs of clustering, and this was more pronounced upon annealing.