Photoluminescence of high energy xenon ion irradiated magnesium aluminate spinel single crystals

Abstract

Laser confocal microscopy technique (60 ps laser pulse excitation at 445 nm) and a time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) technique have been used to study the photoluminescence (PL) in 152 MeV Xe ion irradiated MgAl2O4 single crystals. It was shown that radiation defects produced by swift xenon ions give rise to broad luminescence band positioned in the 470–800 nm wavelength range. The measurements of the PL decay curves have evidenced that lifetime of defect-related PL signal gradually increases from 6 to 10 ns in 500–620 nm spectral range and decreases with ion fluence increasing. The decrease of the luminescence intensity observed after fluences ∼1013 cm−2 is attributed to overlapping of individual ion track core regions.