Detection of Interstitial Oxygen Molecules in SiO2Glass by a Direct Photoexcitation of the Infrared Luminescence of SingletO2

The presence of interstitial oxygen molecules in glassy ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2$ has been demonstrated directly by 1064.1 nm $({\nu }^{\prime \prime }=0\mathrm{})\to ({\nu }^{\prime }=1\mathrm{})$ excitation of the forbidden $O_2$ molecule ${}_{}{}^1{}_{}{}^{}\Delta _g^{}{}_{}{}^{}({\nu }^{\prime }=0\mathrm{})\to {}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}\Sigma _g^{}{}_{}{}^{}({\nu }^{\prime \prime }=0\mathrm{})$ luminescence transition at 1272 nm in Suprasil W1 fused silica. The interstitial ${\mathrm{O}}_2$ molecules, introduced into glass network during the synthesis process, are destroyed by vacuum ultraviolet or neutron irradiation. Mobile O atoms may play an important role in radiation processes in ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2$. The directly photoexcited luminescence of ${\mathrm{O}}_2$ could be used to detect the presence of $O_2$ in other solid state matrices as well.