Ion implantation in alkaline earth oxides

Abstract

We report spectroscopic investigations of defects in alkaline earth oxides implanted with 400 keV Li⁺ and Na⁺ ions. Detailed comparisons of ESR, optical absorption and luminescence spectra confirm that the predominant point defect is the F⁺ centre and to a less extent the vacancy pair centre. Smaller concentrations of F₂ and F₂ ²⁺ centres are also produced. V⁻ centres and isolated anion vacancy centres are not produced by irradiation. Annealing studies demonstrate that colloidal centres grow during annealing above ∼500 K. The position and bandwidths of the colloidal optical absorption bands may be interpreted in terms of classical Maxwell-Garnett theory.