Influence of Electronic Irradiation on Failure and Hardness Properties of Pure Silica Glasses

Abstract This paper's focus is the failure and hardness properties of pure amorphous silica (Corning 7980 ® ) after β-irradiation at different doses (0-2 GGy). Crack propagation takes place in the SCC regime (10 -7 -10 -10 m.s -1 ) and Vickers indentation techniques probe the hardness properties of the samples. Irradiation is found to create point defects which mainly include E’ centers, Non-Bridging Oxygen Hole Centers and Peroxy Radicals. β-irradiation herein invokes minor changes in the structure. A small effect of β-irradiation on SCC and hardness variations cannot be eliminated, despite minute variations in the SCC and the hardness properties.