Stress relaxation of vitreous silica on irradiation

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Abstract
The radiation-induced stress relaxation which is observed on ion bombardment of vitreous silica is described as a viscoelastic behavior in which the apparent viscosity is reduced to ∼1014 Poise during irradiation and then increases rapidly by 4 or 5 orders of magnitude on cessation or interruption of irradiation. The bombarded layer appears to possess a viscosity ∼1019 Poise, lower than would be expected for normal vitreous silica. On electron bombardment the viscosity is also reduced, but not as greatly as an ion bombardment, yet sufficiently to result in the whole radiation-induced volume contraction being realized perpendicularly to the surface, as has been found for ion bombardment. The maximum elastic stored energy which can be realized is but a fraction of a calorie per gram, hence the reported values of 200 cal/g would seem to be associated with the fragmentation of the network responsible for the reduced viscosity.

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