Assignments and optical properties of X-ray-induced colour centres in blue and orange radiophotoluminescent silver-activated glasses

We have systematically investigated the origin and optical properties of the X-ray-induced colour centres based on the blue and red radiophotoluminescence (RPL) in a silver-activated phosphate glass The induced-absorption band was decomposed Into six Gaussian bands on the basis of its strong analogy with silver-activated sodium chloride We have ascribed these bands to Ag(0) Ag(2+), Ag(2)(+) and other silver ion species by means of optical and thermal measurements such as colour centre formation and dissolution by highly successive femtosecond-pulse irradiation excited-state lifetime and thermal annealing characteristics The data confirmed that the blue RPL at 450 nm could be attributed to the 270 and 345 nm bands due to the Ag(2)(+) and Ag(0) centres respectively and that the orange RPL at 560 nm was associated with the 308 nm band due to the Ag(2+) centres (c) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved