Surface plasmons for fluorescence enhancement in Sm-doped borate glasses

Heat treatment of Sm-activated lithium and sodium borate glasses which are additionally doped with silver oxide leads to a reduction of the doped silver ions and to the formation of metallic silver nanoparticles indicated by a broad plasmon-related absorption band in the visible spectral range. The influence of the plasmon resonance field enhancement on the Sm3+ fluorescence excitation bands is too small to lead to enhanced fluorescence emission intensities.