Study of point defects in as-drawn and irradiated Ge-doped optical fibers using cathodoluminescence

In the present paper, we report an experimental investigation of Ge-doped Optical Fibers (OFs) which were investigated by Cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements. We followed the evolution, under 10 keV electron exposure, of the emissions present in three different samples: the first one was the as-drawn fiber (pristine), the second one was irradiated with a CW UV laser at 244 nm and the last one was irradiated at the dose of 9 MGy (SiO₂) by γ-rays. Moreover, taking advantage of the employed experimental set-up, which allows to perform spatially-resolved (<1μm) CL measures, we were able to investigate the emission evolution in two differently doped zones of the fiber. Our data indicate that (i) the CL spectra of our three samples are dominated by the 400 nm emission band related to the Germanium Lone Pair Center (GLPC), (ii) the spatial distribution of this defect differs in the three fibers and (iii) the electron exposure decreases the GLPC concentration in all samples (pristine, UV and γ irradiated). A comparison between the CL and photoluminescence (PL) measurements shows comparable results.