Effect of Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation on Lithium Zinc Silicate Glasses: A Photoluminescence Study

Lithium zinc silicate glasses with and without copper were prepared by melt‐quench method and their luminescence characteristics after swift heavy ion irradiation has been investigated. Based on these studies it is established that both these glasses contain colour centres and the luminescence from such centres get significantly quenched once these samples get irradiated with 100 MeV swift heavy Ag+ ions with a fluence of 1013 ions/cm2 at room temperature. Trapping of the charge carriers by the increased defect concentration brought about by irradiation is responsible for the decrease in the luminescence intensity from the irradiated samples. Copper in these glasses mainly exists as Cu+ ions as revealed by the broad emission around 500 nm.