Mo 5+ in synthetic zircon crystals

Abstract

In synthetic zircon crystals grown from Li 2O-MoO 3and simultaneously doped with U 3O 8 and either Eu 2O 3 or Tb 2O 3, Mo 5+ was detected by EPR after UV illumination at 15 K. The site symmetry is monoclinic, but the deviation from orthorhombic symmetry is very small. Mo 5+ is most likely formed as a radiation defect of low thermal stability from Mo 6+ initially incorporated on Si sites. The g factors and satellite hyperfine splitting constants for the mixture of 95Mo and 97Mo nuclei were determined.