Luminescence properties of chlorine molecules in glassy SiO₂ and optical fibre waveguides

Glassy SiO₂ is the basic material for optical fibre waveguides and manufacturing-induced Cl impurities reduce their transparency in UV spectral range. This work reports in-depth study/spectroscopic parameters of the near-infrared (1.23 eV) low-temperature photo-luminescence (PL) of interstitial Cl₂ molecules in SiO₂. The zero-phonon line position was estimated at 2.075 eV on the basis of anharmonicity of Cl₂ PL vibronic data. The vibronic sub-bands are broadened by coupling to phonons and by an additional contribution from the glassy disorder. The Huang‒Rhys factor is ≈13. The PL decay time is between 1 and 10 ms in the temperature range 100 K‒13 K and can be reproduced by 3 exponents. Cl₂ PL retains relatively high quantum yield and its characteristic structured shape, when the temperature is increased from 13 K to the liquid nitrogen temperature. This allows using it conveniently as a high-sensitivity diagnostic tool for detecting Cl₂ impurities in optical fibre waveguides. Time-resolved measurements of optical fibre waveguides indicate that the lower detection limit is below 10¹⁰ Cl₂/cm³.