Irradiation induced particle formation in Ag-doped sulfophosphate glass

• Irreversible formation of silver clusters occurs in Ag-doped sulfophosphate glasses upon X-ray irradiation.
• Reversible cluster formation occurs upon UV-irradiation in the presence of CeO2.
• Decay kinetics of defects and clusters are reported.

Silver-doped sulfophosphate glasses show irreversible Agmx + silver cluster formation upon X-ray irradiation. Reversible cluster formation occurs upon UV irradiation in the presence of Ce3 + as electron reservoir. Additional intrinsic irradiation induced defects such as POHC, PEC, OHC, SEC and Zn*-HC recover at room temperature. The presence of silver clusters results in the occurrence of an optical absorption band at λ ~ 330 nm. The formation and decay kinetics of irradiation induced defects and clusters are followed by photoluminescence and UV–VIS spectroscopy as well as by small-angle X-ray scattering.