Effects of thermal and mechanical treatment on the luminescence of AgBr crystals

The influence of the plastic deformation and of thermal treatment on the absorption at 10.6μm and on the low temperature luminescence were investigated. The intensity of the 2.12eV emission and of the 10.6μm absorption grow both with deformation; both decrease after annealing to 620K and slow re-cooling to RT. It is suggested that the absorption and luminescence are associated with cation vacancies, and that their concentrations are affected by the mechanical and thermal treatments.