Energy transport in silica to oxygen-deficient luminescence centers. Comparison with other luminescence centers in silica and α-quartz

The transport of energy absorbed by silica glass to oxygen-deficient luminescence centers in was studied in the range of intrinsic absorption from 8.2 up to 35 eV. The low efficiency of exciting those luminescence centers by transport of energy could not be ascribed merely to carrier scattering by the disordered structure. Other centers (Cu+, for example) could be excited in such process with sufficiently high efficiency, albeit lower than that in crystals. The low efficiency of interaction of oxygen deficient centers with quasi-particles is attributed to isolation of these centers in clusters and the non-radiative annihilation of the quasi-particles on the boundaries of these clusters with the main network.