Novel ultra-fast luminescence from incipient ion tracks of insulator crystals: electron–hole plasma formation in the track core

Abstract

Measurements of fast luminescence decay and time-resolved spectra revealed novel ultra-fast luminescence with the lifetime of several tens ps in heavy-ion-irradiated single crystals of LiF, NaF, NaCl, KCl, KBr, KI, RbI, CsCl, CsBr, CsI, α-alumina, and MgO. The luminescence is furthermore characterized by a super-linear increase in the efficiency with increasing excitation density, non-tailed decay curve, and temperature-insensitive decay-rate and yield. The results mean that the luminescence neither originates from localized excited states such as self-trapped excitons, free excitons, excited defects, and excited impurity centers nor their interaction. A process which does not contradict the experimental results is the formation of the e–h plasmas and the luminescence from them.