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.