Characterization of borate glasses by W-band pulse electron-nuclear double resonance spectroscopy.

(100-x) mol % B(2)O(3) x mol % Me(2)O (Me = Li,Na,K) glasses, exposed to gamma-(60)Co irradiation to produce paramagnetic states, were characterized by W-band (95 GHz) pulse electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy in order to characterize local structures occurring in the range of compositions between x=16 and x=25 at which the "boron oxide" anomaly occurs. The high resolution of nuclear frequencies allowed resolving the (7)Li and (11)B ENDOR lines. In the samples with x=16 and x=20 glasses, (11)B hyperfine couplings of 16, 24, and 36 MHz were observed and attributed to the tetraborate, triborate, and boron oxygen hole center (BOHC) structures, respectively. The x=25 samples showed hyperfine couplings of 15 MHz for the tetraborate and 36 MHz for BOHC. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations predicted for these structures negative hyperfine couplings, which were confirmed by W-band ENDOR. This suggests that a spin polarization mechanism accounts for the negative hyperfine structure splitting.