Damage process and luminescent characteristics in silica glasses under ion irradiation

The formation and annihilation behavior of the oxygen vacancies in silica glasses under 0.1 – 3.0 MeV H and He ion irradiation were studied using ion induced luminescence. Characteristics of the luminescence efficiency by the ion energy deposition were examined using thin SiO2 films prepared by sputtering followed by thermal oxidation. The ion induced 2.7 eV luminescence linearly increased with increasing the electronic stopping of H ions in the range between 20 and 150 eV nm−1, while it was nearly constant for He ions in the range between 200 and 370 eV nm−1. The evolution curves of the luminescence intensity during the H and He ion irradiation can be explained by the defect production mainly by the nuclear collision and its annihilation by electronic energy deposition.