Positron annihilation and ESR study of irradiation-induced defects in silica glass

Abstract

The angular correlation of positron annihilation radiation (ACAR), positron lifetime and electron spin resonance (ESR) have been measured on fused and synthetic silica glass samples before and after irradiation with fast neutrons up to a dose of 8.6 × 10 18 n/cm 2 at about 150°C or with 3 MeV electrons up to a dose of 1 × 10 18 e/cm 2 below 50°C. The ACAR curves are deconvoluted into two Gaussian components: a narrow and a broad component. The narrow component is due to self-annihilation of ortho-state of positronium (p-Ps) formed in “intrinsic” structural voids with radius of about 0.3 nm, while the broad component comes from pick-off annihilation of ortho-Ps and annihilation of positrons with valence electrons presumably associated with oxygen. Detailed post-irradiation experiments reveal that two kinds of positron trapping centers (defects) are introduced. Both kinds of the defects give almost the same broad component and markedly suppress Ps formation. This suggests that they are oxygen related centers. The first type defects with the positron lifetime of about 0.25 ns anneal out at 400–500°C, while the second type defects with lifetime of 0.47 ns recover after annealing at about 600°C. Electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements were also made on the same samples to detect irradiation-induced paramagnetic center (defects): E′ centers, peroxyradicals (POR) and non-bridging oxygen hole centers (NBOHC). The correspondence between the positron trapping centers and the ESR-active paramagnetic centers is not straightforward, partly because positrons can be trapped not only at the paramagnetic defects but also at diamagnetic defects. However, possible relations between these positron trapping centers and the paramagnetic defects are discussed.