As an evaluation of durability of synthetic silica glass under irradiation of KrF excimer laser (5.0 eV) or ArF excimer laser (6.4 eV), degradation of transmission was studied for a sample that contained 4×10
18 molecules/cm
3 H
2 but was substantially free of other impurities. First, Khotimchenko’s method of H
2 analysis was examined with specimens whose H
2 contents were varied by vacuum degassing, covering three orders of magnitude down to H
2-free (
i.e., less than the instrumental detection limit of 5×10
16). It was shown that this method was quite reliable.
Then the effects of dissolved H
2 were assessed. The hydrogen molecules were decomposed under excimer laser irradiation, and reacted with the E’ center. For KrF excimer laser irradiation, the degradation of transmission was found to be suppressed, when the concentration of hydrogen much increased. Whereas for ArF excimer laser irradiation, there seemed to exist an optimum concentration range.
The author proposes a reaction model for the last observation as:
≡ Si–O–Si ≡+ H
2+hν→≡Si·+·O–Si≡+ H
2→≡+Si–H + H–O–Si ≡,
where ≡Si· is the E’ center, and ·O–Si≡ , the non-bxsridging oxygen hole center.
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