Investigating densification processes of amorphous silica phases through activation energy distribution

We investigated thermal stability of silica glass that underwent high-temperature (HT), high-pressure (HP) densification followed with electron irradiations. We performed isothermal annealing and in situ Raman spectroscopy to observe changes in the silica structure. By determining the activation energy distributions at the root of the densification process, we aimed to gain insights into the relaxation pathway of densified silica and its relationship with the structural properties. Of particular interest we observed a non monotonous behavior of D₂ band in Raman spectra in HP-HT samples exposed at low dose ≤10⁷ Gy, which we attribute to presence of a specific phase of silica glass known as the high-density amorphous phase. Our study highlights the impact of irradiation on the ratio between high-density amorphous and low-density amorphous phases, and on relative activation energy distributions. These findings have important implications for development of high-performance optical devices based on silica densification for a wide range of applications.