Radiation-induced damage and recovery effects in GG17 glass irradiated by 1 MeV electrons

The optical properties and microstructural damage of GG17 glasses, as well as their recovery during annealing at room temperature, are investigated after exposure to 1 MeV electrons with various fluences. Experimental results show that the electrons lead to severe optical degradation in the GG17 glass, and induce the formation of paramagnetic defects which can be mainly attributed to the boron–oxygen hole centers. With increasing annealing time at room temperature their decay serves as long-lived defects following first order kinetics. Except for the strong absorption bands located at 334–352 nm and 480 nm that corresponds to the boron–oxygen hole centers, weaker absorption bands appear at 780 nm or 794.6 nm after irradiation, inducing a decrease in transmittance by approximately 17% for a fluence of 1 × 1016 cm−2. It is shown that electron irradiation could cause a harmful effect on rubidium lamps when GG17 glass is used as the lamp envelope material.