Incorporation of copper and its oxides and chalcogenides into silica sol-gel materials*

Recent results concerning fabrication and optical features of the sol-gel materials are reviewed. The nanoparticles of copper, copper oxides, sulfides and selenides have been produced by means of the modi-fied silica-based sol-gel technique within two types of materials: amorphous silica films and monolithic glasses. Features of the optical absorption are discussed in dependence on the chemical composition. Optical properties are varied with element composition of the compounds, size of particles, their concen-tration, etc. The quantum confinement and partial surface chemical modification of the nanoparticles are considered as possible reasons for appearance of optical features of the copper multivalent compounds