Defects in glasses

The absence of long range order in the glass structure allows to define only point defects in these materials. They are: 1) intrinsic defects—atomic size local deviation from short range order; 2) impurity defects—isolated impurity atoms or ions in the glass network; 3) intrinsic impurity defects—complexes consisting of the impurity atoms chemically bonded to one of the intrinsic defect atoms. The latter defects are characteristic for the doped glasses. Presence of point defects in glasses introduces new spectroscopic properties of these solid materials. Defect generation, interaction and recombination reactions resulting from the external influence causes the glass spectroscopic property changes.