Some effects of gamma-irradiation in soda-lime silicate glasses

Nanosized metallic silver particles have been formed in multicomponent comm ercial soda-lime silicate glasses partly substituted with ionic silver and irradiated at room temperature by gamma-rays from a Co-60-source (1.33 MeV) . To characterize the obtained composites, combined measurements of thermal ly stimulated depolarization current and optical absorption, accompanied by microspectrophotometric analysis and electron microscopy observations have been used. It has been shown that gamma-irradiation might be an effective means to modify and control the concentration, size and spatial distributio n of the dopant within the near-surface layer of the glass-matrix. This pro cedure also allows the conversion of some glassy areas in this region into a partially crystalline material with improved mechanical characteristics. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.