Ion beam-stimulated phase formation in fused silica

Phase formation involving implanted impurities is a most important ion beam-stimulated process in solids since it leads to formation of layer with different properties in glasses. In initial quartz glasses, new phases of mNa2O–nSiO2 and mLi2O–nSiO2 were produced at different depths from the surface. It was found that these ion-synthesized glasses and glasses of the same elemental composition obtained by conventional methods are structurally similar. The effect of ion beam-stimulated liquidation was found for the first time in ion-implanted glasses. The size of liquidation microphases is in the range 100–2000 Å.