Dependence of the irradiation-induced growth kinetics of satellites on the nanoclusters dimension

Irradiation with MeV gold ions of embedded Au nanoclusters in silica matrix results in the formation of a ring of satellites in its surrounding. We show that changing the initial nanoclusters size modifies both the size and the density of the satellites, and therefore alters their kinetic growth. Finally we discuss the limitation of the ion implantation technique to form a model system to study the satellites kinetic growth and we propose a new approach based on the chemical synthesis of metallic nanoparticles to obtain the proper configuration.