Microstructural changes in irradiated silica based glasses

High voltage electron microscopy studies have been performed on irradiated pure silica and borosilicate glasses to check their long-term stability when these materials are employed near high energy radioactive sources, such as in fusion reactors and during the storage of nuclear waste. The intense energetic beam of electrons produced by the Harwell 1 MeV microscope, ranging from 1017 to 1020 e/cm2/s has been focused upon specimens of various composition and impurity content at different temperatures up to about 8500C. Pure silica samples have also been bombarded with 46.5 MeV Ni+6 ions at the Variable Energy Cyclotron. It is found that while no significant changes are detectable in pure irradiated silica, clear evidence is present in complex borosilicate glasses for the growing of large defect clusters (over 1000 A, resembling gas bubbles) after electron doses of about 8.5 x 1019 e/cm2 and dose rates exceeding 2 x 1018 e/cm2/sec. Moreover, small regions, about 100 A wide, scattering electrons more than the matrix are also present. The nature of this fine microstructure has been established as a phase separation into crystalline tridymite. The observations are discussed in terms of their dependence on temperature, sample thickness, dose and dose rates. (author)