Stress, hydration, and optical absorption in ion-implanted aluminum oxide

The surface stress induced by energetic implants (Ar, Xe) promotes ambient hydration (max.∼1 at.%) into Al2O3 for collisional deposition energies of 1021–1022 keV cm−3. Al implants are anomalous in that they induce hydration above 1021 keV cm−3 that rises near-linearly with no saturation at the highest deposition levels (∼1024 keV cm−3). Both Al and H produce anomalously large F-centre concentrations; stress measurements show near-coincidence behaviour reflecting their influence on O-vacancy production.