Radiation effects in glass and other materials

If the success of a meeting is judged by the number of times a session chairman is forced to terminate discussions, the “1962 Conference on Radiation Effects in Glass” must be considered exceedingly successful. This conference was held in Rochester, N.Y., on April 12th and 13th at the Dryden Theater of the Eastman House of Photography. It was designed to bring together persons actively working in this field which actually includes many materials in addition to glasses. Glass technologists and especially glass physicists have always had considerable interest in crystals that are basic glass‐forming materials, e.g., ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2,$ ${\mathrm{Al}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3,$ etc. Consequently, a large fraction of the papers presented dealt with these substances. This interest also stems from the fact that the coordination of the atoms in many crystals persists as short‐range coordination when they are incorporated in glasses. In fact, at this conference, glass‐forming crystals were the subject of almost half of the papers presented. Also, more than half of these papers, i.e., one fourth of the total, were concerned with electron spin resonance in natural or synthetic quartz. An introduction to the subject of ESR was given by O. R. Gilliam of the University of Connecticut, who also presented some recent results on the numerous paramagnetic centers found in irradiated ${\mathrm{Al}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3.$ It appears that practically any variation in radiation conditions produces a new center in this substance. However, none of them have been worked out in complete detail.