The use of metals as a dopant in glass hosts has been extensively researched. The typical doping processes used are ion-diffusion, ion-exchange and ion implantation, for example. In this way optical waveguides with high-quality graded refractive index have been obtained by metal ion-exchange. In this work the study of Ag and Cu diffusion process assisted by MeV Si ion irradiation as another method for glass doping is presented.

The samples consisted in Ag and Cu thin films deposited over soda lime glass squares by physical evaporation. The films were irradiated with Si ions at energies in the range from 2 to 12 MeV with fluencies of ~10¹⁶ ions/cm² and ion beam impinged at different angles on the sample.  After irradiation the samples were annealed in air at 300-450^oC. The samples properties were studied, before and after the annealing, by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS), m-line method and optical absorption.

The atomic metal distributions obtained inside the soda lime were not uniform. Maximum concentrations are observed inside the glass at few microns from the surface sample.The m-Line method was used to measure the changes in refractive index in the host glass by the presence of Ag and Cu atoms. A refractive index enhancement was encountered which indicates that the structure obtained can act as a conventional optical waveguide. Also, the measure of optical absorption it was found that the irradiated Cu was introduced in the glass host and nanoparticles of this material were formed.