Germanium ions have been implanted in fused silica using ion beams having energies of 3 and 5 MeV and doses ranging from 1×1012 to 5×1014 ions/cm2. For wavelengths shorter than 400 nm, the optical absorption increases strongly with two absorption bands appearing at 244 and 212 nm. The ion-induced optical absorption can be bleached almost completely by irradiation with 249 nm excimer laser light. Ion implantation also increases the refractive index of silica near the substrate surface. At 632.8 nm a refractive index increase of more than 10-2 has been measured. This decreases by 4×10-3 upon bleaching with 249 nm light.
We have studied optical changes induced by ArF (6.4 eV/193 nm) excimer laser light illumination of high purity SiO2 implanted with Si2+ (5 MeV) at a fluence of 1015 ions/cm2. Optical absorption was measured from 3 eV (400 nm) to 8 eV (155 nm) and showed evidence of several well-defined absorption bands. A correlation in the bleaching behavior appears to exist between the so-called D band (located at 7.15 eV) and the well-known B2α band which is attributed to oxygen vacancies. Changes in the refractive index as a function of ArF illumination were measured and found to be in good quantitative agreement with a Kramers-Kronig analysis of the optical absorption data.