A comparative study of the point defect accumulation in the Ar+−implanted and neutron-irradiated silicon dioxide

Abstract The ion-implantation of silica is widely used in optoelectronics and neighboring areas. Si + ions serve for formation of clusters/nanocrystals in components of microelectronic devices; Ge+, P+, and B+ are used for controlling refraction index in lightguides. All enumerated ions interact chemically with oxygen atoms in SiO2, thus shading the stoichiometric distortions caused by direct impact interactions of particles with a host. In this research, the optically-active defects in the silica network were induced by embedding of chemically inert Ar + ions and thermal neutrons. A set of bands belonging to neutral oxygen vacancies (≡Si-Si≡), non-bridging oxygen hole centers (NBOHC) and some other point defects were detected in the photoluminescence spectra of implanted/irradiated samples. The intensity variation of the bands at the Ar + fluence increase was found to be caused by a competition between defect nucleation and their annealing or/and concentration quenching at high fluence. The ionization of atoms by charged particles resulted in the multivariant spectral manifestation of the defects of the same type due to their arrangement in differently distorted host localities. The diversification of defects produced by neutrons was lesser, because the neutron impact on the silica host was limited by the interactions with nuclei.