Abstract
Various sources of non-equilibrium radiation from interstellar dust are discussed. It is shown that the existence of cirrus emission at 12 and 25 μm is consistent with the presence of amorphous carbon dust and arises from thermal spikes within ≃ 10å subvolumes of normal (0.01-0.1 μm radius) dust grains. The 3.28 μm unidentified infrared (UIR) feature also arises in this way, as the radiative relaxation of high energy vibrational modes accompanying a thermal spike in hydrogenated amorphous carbon. Extended red emission (ERE) and near-infrared (NIR) emission are also discussed and are postulated to originate as edge and defect luminescence from HAC solids with bandgaps Eg ≲ 2.5eV.
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