VUV and IR absorption spectra induced in H2-loaded and UV hyper-sensitized standard germanosilicate preform plates through exposure to ArF laser light

H2-loaded Ge-doped preform plates have been UV hyper-sensitized and subsequently post-exposed by means of UV ArF laser pulses at 193 nm. Both Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Vacuum Ultraviolet (VUV) absorption spectroscopy has been carried out at each step of the sensitization process with a view to get a better understanding of the UV hyper-sensitization process at 193 nm. Exposing the H2-loaded samples firstly triggers a partial bleaching of the 5 eV absorption band, followed by a new growth of the band for longer exposure time. As it has already been reported for exposure at 248 nm, the exposure at 193 nm firstly yields an increase in the absorption ascribed to hydroxyl (≈3600 cm−1), hydride species (≈2140–2185 cm−1) and GeE′ defects (≈6.3 eV). The evolution of the absorption related to the GeH2 species is not monotonous but rather the absorption reaches a peak (Npre = 2000) and then slightly decreases for further exposure time. Post-exposing the hyper-sensitized samples (Npre = 2000) lead to a partial bleaching of the absorption ascribed to hydride species and to increases in the intensity of the GeE′ defect-related absorption and in the absorption ascribed to hydroxyl species. The accurate determination of the species concentration from the absorption spectra proved to be rather tricky due to the problem of accurately measuring the depth of the UV beam penetration at each time of the exposure. Nevertheless, a correlation could be established between the growth of the UV-induced UV excess loss ascribed to GeE′ species and the UV-induced decrease in the intensity of the IR bands related to hydride species. These observations are discussed within the frame-work of the two step model.