The Ag:Al2O3 composites are prepared by Ag+ ions implantation with the acceleration voltage of 35 kV. The formation of silver nanoparticle and the surface plasma resonance (SPR) effect are studied. The appearance of absorption bands demonstrates the formation of silver nanoparticles in Al2O3. Long-time sputtering due to the high fluency removes the surface layer, and the embedded Ag NPs appear on the surface though the majorities are in the deeper area. The fluorescence spectrum of Ag:Al2O3 evaluated by Gaussian fitting consists of three peaks: 365 nm, 403 nm and 471 nm. These bands should be attributed to defects produced by the matrix and embedded Ag+ ions. In addition, a strong peak at 693 nm is supposed to be R line for Al2O3 in the emission spectrum (VUV spectrum). The crystal structure and optical properties of ion implanted sapphire have been changed after ion implantation and it is analyzed by defects and displacements. Eventually, the SRIM program is used to simulate the growth of nanoparticles with four stages. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.