Ion beam-stimulated phase formation in fused silica

Phase formation involving implanted impurities is a most important ion beam-stimulated process in solids since it leads to formation of layers with different properties in glasses. In initial quartz glasses, new phases of mNa₂O-SiO₂ and mLi₂O-nSiO₂ were produced at different depths from the surface. It was found that these ion.synthesized glasses and glasses of the same elemntal composition obtained by conventional methods are structurally similar. The effect of ion beam-stimulated liquidation was found for the first time in ion-implanted glasses. The size of liquidation microphases is in the range10-200nm.