The nature of blue luminescence from natural benitoite BaTiSi3O9

Michael Gaft, L. Nagli, G. Waychunas, D. Weiss

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is proved that blue luminescence from benitoite is connected with intrinsic luminescence centers, namely isolated TiO6 octahedra. The metastable level 3T1u is the emitting level at low temperatures with a long decay time of 1.1 ms. At higher temperatures an energy level with higher radiation probability must be involved in the emission process, and this level is situated at 0.06 eV higher than the lowest level. These two levels may be connected with 3T1u level splitting or with closely spaced 3T1u and 3T2u levels. Decay time shortening and thermal quenching are connected with nonradiative decay within the TiO6 luminescence center, while energy migration does not take place at least up to room temperature.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)365-373
Number of pages9
JournalPhysics and Chemistry of Minerals
Volume31
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2004
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Benitoite
  • Blue luminescence
  • TiO centers

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