Is the fracto-mechanoluminescence of ZnS:Mn phosphor dominated by charged dislocation mechanism or piezoelectrification mechanism?

Abstract

Mathematical approaches made for both the charged dislocation model and piezoelectrically induced electron bombardment model of fracto-mechanoluminescence (FML), the luminescence induced by fracture of solids, in ZnS:Mn phosphor indicate that the piezoelectrically induced electron bombardment model provides a dominating process for the FML of ZnS phosphors. The concentration of 3000 ppm Mn(2+) is optimal for ML intensity of ZnS:Mn phosphor. The decay time of ML gives the relaxation time of the piston used to deform the sample and the time tm of maximum of ML is controlled by both the relaxation time of the piston and decay time of charges on the newly created surfaces of crystals. As the product of the velocity of dislocations and pinning time of dislocations gives the mean free path of a moving dislocation. Both factors play an important role in the ML excitation of impurity doped II-VI semiconductors. The linear increase of total ML intensity IT with the impact velocity indicates that the damage increases linearly with impact velocity of the load. Thus, the ML measurement can be used remotely to monitor the real-time damage in the structures, and therefore, the ML of ZnS:Mn phosphor has also the potential for a structural health monitoring system.