Effect of quenching rate and annealing on ESR of Cu2+ and γ-induced Cd+ in low alkali borate glasses

A new ESR hyperfine structure (hfs) of Cu²⁺ was detected in moderately (cooling rate ≈ 3 K/s) and rapidly (10³–10⁵K/s) quenched borate glasses with Na₂O content smaller than 5 mol% in addition to the already reported three patterns, spectra I, II and III, for the moderately quenched borate glasses with 5 ? [Na₂O]?13, 20 ? [Na₂O] ?37 and 55 ? [Na₂O] ? 75, respectively. The ESR parameters of this spectrum were much the same as those of II, but a significant difference was observed between thermal stabilities of these spectra. The newly observed spectrum was named spectrum II′. A superposition of spectra II′ and I was seen in low alkali borate glasses ([Na₂O] ? 5 mol%). The relative intensity of II′ to I increased remarkably with increasing quenching rate of the melts and with decreasing alkali content under the same quenching condition. In addition, spectrum II′ was found to relax into I upon thermal annealing of the glasses. Similar changes were observed also in ESR of the γ-induced Cd⁺ with 5s¹ electronic configuration. A tentative model to account for the spectral changes was proposed on the basis of the characteristics of B—O bonding.