Re: Radiation Damage to Optical Crytals

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 12:34 10.02.2000 -0600, you wrote:
>Radsafers,
>
>A client of mine here in Bozeman has asked me for information regarding the 
>radiation effects (darkening/degradation) on optical crystals (ranging from 
>BK7 and fused silica to lithium niobate and Nd-YAG). ...............


What I know for sure is, that intensive gamma radiation darkens quartz
(which is used to produce artificially smoky quartz). Therefor I would not
be surprised if this happened to fused silica as well. Irradiation is often
used to intensify the colour of gemstones (we had several threads on this
at RADSAFE). Nevertheless all these effects depend on the dose.

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

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