Coloration of Glasses Induced by Space Ionizing Radiation

The optical stabilities of several glasses(K9-HL glass,JGS3 silica glass,K509 glass and JGS1 silica glass) under conditions of ionizing radiation(proton flux,electron flux) were studied.Additionally,using the simu-lation results of space ionizing radiation by SPENVIS and CReME-MC,optical lives of these four glasses serving in a given orbital(perigee 350 km,apogee 425 km,orbital inclination 51.6o) were analysed.It can be found that being used for more than 10 years in this given orbital,the optical transmission of the K9-HL glass evidently de-creased,while the optical transmission of the other three glasses(JGS3 silica glass,K509 glass and JGS1 silica glass) didn’t change or changed a little and they can serve as good optical materials in the given space orbital.Be-cause most of the space particles(ionizing radiation) can be effectively inhibited or absorbed in some penetration depth of the glass,the space ionizing radiation can only color a surface layer of the glass,as a result,an anti-radiation glass layer can be put outside the window of a long duration spacecraft in order to reduce ionizing ir-radiation,and the layer can be made of silica glass.