Fundamental Role of Creation and Activation in Radiation-Induced Defect Production in High-Purity Amorphous SiO2

A model for the radiation-induced production of defects in amorphous insulators is proposed. It is shown that an irreversible creation of defects from network sites follows power law kinetics, and a reversible activation of precursor sites follows Kohlrausch kinetics. Electron spin resonance was used to measure the concentration of x-ray induced $E^{\prime }$ centers in high-purity amorphous Si${\mathrm{O}}_2$ over an extremely wide dose range with high precision. The agreement between theoretical and experimental defect densities, over more than 4 orders of magnitude in dose, is unprecedented.