The use of X-ray-induced and thermostimulated visible and UV luminescence for understanding X-ray poling of silica glasses

In this paper, we studied the X-ray-induced visible and UV luminescence (XRL) during X-ray irradiation, afterglow (after X-ray was switched off) and thermostimulated luminescence (TSL). Comparisons were performed between with and without applying an electric field of 1.5 kV/mm on the sample. The typical TSL curve for X-ray-irradiated samples present two peaks centered at 90 and 280 °C. The relative intensity of these two peaks is X-ray dose dependent. An external electric field enhances the XRL, but has no effect on the afterglow. The TSL and afterglow spectra are identical with one peak at 3.25 eV, whereas XRL spectrum displays an additional peak at 4.25 eV. A model of electron exchange between defects is proposed.