Investigations on variation of defects in fused silica with different annealing atmospheres using positron annihilation spectroscopy

Abstract The laser damage resistance properties of the fused silica can be influenced by the microstructure variation of the atom-size intrinsic defects and voids in bulk silica. Two positron annihilation spectroscopy techniques have been used to investigate the microstructure variation of the vacancy clusters and the structure voids in the polishing redeposition layer and the defect layer of fused silica after annealing in different atmospheres. The fused silica samples were isothermally annealed at 1000 K for 3 h in a furnace under an air atmosphere, a vacuum atmosphere and a hydrogen atmosphere, respectively. The positron annihilation results show that ambient oxygen atmosphere only affects the surface of the fused silica (about 300 nm depth) due to the large volume and low diffusion coefficient of the oxygen atom. However, hydrogen atoms can penetrate into the defect layer inside the fused silica and then have an influence on vacancy defects and vacancy clusters, while having no effect on the large voids. Besides, research results indicate that an annealing process can reduce the size and concentration of vacancy clusters. The obtained data can provide important information for understanding the laser damage mechanism and improving laser damage resistance properties of the fused silica optics.