A neutron diffraction and MAS-NMR study of the structure of fast neutron irradiated vitreous silica

Abstract Neutron diffraction and magic angle spinning (MAS)-NMR measurements have been performed on vitreous silica before and after irradiation to a dose of 2.8×10 20 fast neutrons cm −2 . On fast neutron irradiation the first peak in the diffraction pattern is reduced in height, broadened and shifted to a slightly higher scattering vector, reflecting the increase in density of 2.4%. This may be interpreted as an enhancement of smaller scale structures, consistent with irradiation generating a higher proportion of three-membered rings as indicated by Raman data. In real space, there is a corresponding small increase in the SiO bond length which is consistent with a reduction in the mean SiOSi bond angle of ≈9.5° as indicated by the MAS-NMR data. Fast neutron irradiation also leads to a peak in the difference correlation function at ≈3.2A which has previously been ascribed to oxygen atom interstitials, but may be identified as the Si(2)O distance within a three-membered ring.