ESR and Optical Studies of Induced Centres in Binary Silver and Alkali Borate Glasses

A series of binary borate glasses containing up to 35 mol% Ag20 was X-irradiated and the induced centres were studied by means of ESR and optical absorption spectroscopy. The results showed that the Ag+ traps an electron or a hole to form AgO or Ag++ respectively. The induced ESR spectra of these centres consisted of two hyper fine Ag° lines (g = 2.20 and g = 1.83) and an axially symmetric line for Ag++ (g⊥ = 2.04 and g″ = 2.31). This is in line with what has previously been reported for low silver content glasses.