Effect Of Polyvalent Ion Additions On The Solarisation Of Annealed And Toughened Glass

Solarisation of annealed and toughened sodium silicate glasses, and the effects of cerium and/or vanadium doping, were studied using radiation from a mercury lamp. In accordance with existing reports, pure sodium silicate glasses exhibited severe solarisation but addition of cerium to the glass was found to prevent solarisation. However, cerium doping may not suppress solarisation when other polyvalent elements are present; for example, it was found that sodium silicate glasses doped with both cerium and vanadium suffered solarisation, with transmission losses of up to 8% at 500nm. It was discovered that thermally toughened glasses, with compressive stress in the surface regions, are more susceptible to solarisation.