Pb+ implanted SiO2 probed by soft x-ray emission and absorption spectroscopy

► X-ray O Kα emission spectra of Pb-implanted glassy and crystalline silica indicate the dis­ordering degree of the oxygen sublattice. The radiation-induced transformations of oxygen electronic states are caused by the structure disordering and amorphization of the samples under study (metamict phase transition). The injected Pb-particles cannot generate the PbO4 structural units as in the case of melted хPbO∙(1-х)SiO2 glasses.