Photosensitive defects in silica layers implanted with germanium ions

Abstract Ge-implanted silica layers have been investigated by high-power pulsed synchrotron-photoluminescence (PL), photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy (PLE), and optically stimulated electron emission (OSEE) with respect to association of excitation and absorption bands to respective emission bands and lifetimes of excited defect states. In this way singlet–singlet (4.35 eV) and triplet–singlet (3.18 eV) radiative transitions from excited states of oxygen-deficient centers (ODC) in Ge-doped silica glass are characterized by their absorption and emission bands as well as their lifetimes. The main channel for non-radiative relaxation of photoexcitation is electron emission by the OSEE effect. The OSEE shows non-radiative transitions of surface E s ′ and bulk E′-centers found with concentrations of (2.7–3.4) × 1012 cm−2 and (2–4) × 1016 cm−3, respectively.