I'm not sure of the actual crystalline structure, but it's not like silica gel,
which displays substantial optical diffusion. Given the fact that it's highly
transparent to the point of invisibility, I'm making the assumption that the
structure is similar to fused quartz.
--- Original Message ---
On Wednesday, December 21st, 2022 at 8:32 AM, Arnaud Kodeck
wrote:
> What is the crystal structure of the adhered layer ? Amorphous (sort of
> silica gel) or crystallized (crystalline quartz) ?
>
> From: MSF
> Sent: 21 December 2022 00:00
> To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
> Subject: Re: [Vo]:Solar cell lifetime in space
>
> I was working with this method of surface treatment of glass more decades ago
> than I care to remember. You simply immerse ordinary glass into a bath of
> molten potassium nitrate and the sodium Ions at the surface are replaced with
> potassium ions, resulting in a highly impact resistant glass. These days it's
> called gorilla glass, but I was using this technique long before Corning.
>
> I see that cerium doped sheet is just glass, not fused silica. So it may be
> that no cerium ions could be implanted into pure silica by the molten salt
> technique.
>
> I recently discovered a method of depositing a layer of silica on any given
> surface using a ridiculously simple and inexpensive technique. This is
> something that should have been discovered 200 or so years ago, but wasn't.
> I've searched for months trying to find out if this was done before, but I
> find no reference to it. The silica layer deposited is only a few tens of
> microns thick, but the process can be repeated. Other compounds can be
> included; so far I've only tried copper. This is a solid transparent well
> adhered layer, not some powdered composite. I really don't know what to do
> with this, probably nothing. Thought you might be interested anyway.
>
> --- Original Message ---
> On Tuesday, December 20th, 2022 at 10:00 PM, Andrew Meulenberg
> wrote:
>
>> Foster,
>>
>> You have raised an interesting possibility. I have been out of the loop for
>> 25 years, so my info may be dated. However, the cerium was included in the
>> melt, with the quantity a djusted for the optimum UV absorption for the
>> coverslide thickness.
>>
>> Use of a doped layer rather than the bulk could possibly provide some
>> improved optical matching in the "STACK". It would have to be tested for
>> stability during the thermal cycles. If the surface doping (by dipping or by
>> ion implantation) is a reliable process, this might be worth mentioning it
>> to the appropriate people (who I no longer know).
>>
>> Andrew
>>
>> -- Forwarded message -
>>
>> I guess this is getting off into the weeds a bit, but is the quartz layer
>> doped with cerium in the mass? Or is the cerium diffused into the surface by
>> immersion in a molten cerium compound?
>>
>> --
>>
>> On Tuesday, December 20th, 2022 at 2:26 AM, Andrew Meulenberg
>> wrote:
>>
>
