Low-temperature thermally stimulated luminescence of high quality quartz

Abstract

An investigation of the thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) from quartz irradiated at 95 K has been made below room temperature. The synthetic quartz specimens were of very high quality with a Q of about 106. Such material contains few impurities and the TSL is weak. Nonetheless, it was determined that three regions of TSL glow peak interest exist. Region I (115–145 K) contains a single sharp peak having a maximum in its broad spectral emission at about 450 nm; Region II (145–185 K) is quite complex in structure, and is dependent upon defect content and sample treatment; Region III (185–270 K) can be eliminated by electrodiffusion (sweeping) techniques or by irradiation at temperatures above 250 K prior to the 95-K irradiation. Both Regions II and III show broadband spectral emission with maxima near 380 nm. The intensity of the TSL glow peak in Region III appears to correlate well with the presence of Al-Na+ and/or Al-Li+ centers as determined from other measurements, suggesting it may provide yet another method for quartz crystal quality evaluation.