title: Correlation between oxygen-deficient center formation and volume compaction in synthetic SiO2 glass upon ArF or F2 excimer-laser irradiation.
abstract: Correlations between the refractive-index change and the concentration of an oxygen-deficient center (ODC) induced by thermal treatments and laser irradiation are examined to clarify the origin of laser-induced volume compaction in synthetic SiO2 glasses. A linear correlation between them was clearly observed for thermally induced ODC, whereas no correlation was found for ArF or F2 laser irradiation. The results demonstrate that the dominant origin of laser-induced compaction is not ODC formation. Furthermore, we found that the presence of H2 in SiO2 glass had no influence on volume compaction but enhanced crack formation upon laser irradiation, a phenomenon most likely due to stress corrosion.
authors.affiliation: Transparent Electro Active Material (TEAM) Project, Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Kanagawa Science Park C-1232 Sakato 3-2-1, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki 213-0012, Japan. yoshiaki-ikuta@agc.co.jp
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ikuta
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kajihara
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hosono