Evidence on the isothermal and warm-up luminescence from .gamma.-irradiated 3-methylpentane glass

Abstract

The isothermal luminescence of ..gamma..-irradiated 3-methylpentane glass at 77/sup 0/K has been found to grow in proportion to the concentration of trapped electrons to at least 2 x 10/sup 19/ eV g/sup -1/, in contrast to the implication of reports in the literature. The appearance of luminescence peaks at two different temperatures during warm-up is evidence for neutralization of two types of cation-anion (or radical-radical) pairs, one of which is present in enhanced concentration in samples containing O/sub 2/. The dose dependence of the integrated warm-up luminescence indicates that the cations and/or anions responsible for the luminescence at doses less than 1 x 10/sup 19/ eV g/sup -1/ are different from those at considerably higher doses. The extent and limits of knowledge available for assignment of the luminescence peaks to specific elementary processes are discussed.