Photosensitivity of B, Si and N implanted silica

Silica was implanted with B and N ions at 4 MeV and Si ions at 5 MeV with nominal doses of 1 × 10¹⁶ ions/cm². The samples were exposed to 245 nm KrF excimer irradiation with a fluence of 150 mJ/cm² per pulse for pulse totals of 1.5, 15 and 30 J/cm². The optical absorption from 200 to 450 nm was measured before and after each series of KrF irradiations. Broad peaks at 210 and 245 nm are observed in the absorption spectra. The magnitude of the absorption as well as the photosensitive response is dependent on the implanted ion species. We attribute the differences observed in the absorption of the as implanted samples and their response to KrF irradiation to differences in the ion-solid interactions.