Radiation-induced processes and defects in alkali and alkaline-earth borate crystals

The paper presents the results of a study of the radiation-induced processes and defects in nonlinear optical crystals Li₂B₄O₇ (LTB), LiB₃O₅ (LBO), CsLiB₆O₁₀, KB₅O₈·4H₂O, β-BaB₂O₄. It was revealed that a pulsed electron beam irradiation at 290 K forms the radiation-induced pairs of the ‘vacancy—interstitial atom’ defects in the cation sublattice of these crystals. This gives rise to a creation of metastable electronic (interstitial atom) and hole (small-radius polaron near the cation vacancy) centers in high concentrations. Optical hole-transitions from the local level of the trapped hole centers to the valence band states are responsible for the transient optical absorptions (TOA) of borates in the visible and UV spectral ranges. A sublattice of the weakly bound mobile lithium cations in LTB and LBO favors a spatial separation of the radiation-induced pair defects ‘hole polaron near Li-vacancy—mobile interstitial Li⁰ atom’. Their decay rated by the electron–hole nonradiative tunnel recombination determines a peculiar feature of the TOA decay kinetics in LTB and LBO.