A study of the behaviour of copper in different types of silicate glasses implanted with Cu+ and O+ ions

Glasses containing copper are promising photonic materials for lasing devices and all-optical components. It has already been shown that the oxidation state of the implants depends on many factors. This paper is going to report on one of them, i.e. the influence of the composition of a silicate glass matrix on the behaviour of the implanted Cu ions before and after a subsequent implantation of oxygen ions.
Three types of silicate glasses having a different extent of cross-linking were implanted with copper ions with an energy of 330 keV and a fluence 1 × 1016 ions cm−2. Then the glasses were implanted with oxygen ions with an energy of 110 keV into the same depth as the already implanted Cu ions. The concentration depth profiles of Cu in the glasses were studied by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry. After the implantation, the samples were characterised by optical absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The samples were annealed in ambient atmosphere for 1 h at 600 °C, which is near the transformation temperature of those glasses. The effect of annealing on the distribution of the implants and on the absorption and emission spectra of the as-implanted glasses will be discussed as well