Thermoluminescence of shock-loaded amethyst quartz

Abstract

In natural amethyst samples subjected to shock pressures between 10 and 50 GPa (1 GPa=109 Pa), thermoluminescence (TL) was observed after subsequent X-ray irradiation, in some cases even without high energy irradiation. The glow curves could be decomposed into at most five components of Gaussian shape, but no reliable activation energies could be determined from them, perhaps due to a wide distribution of trap depths. With increasing shock pressures traps of higher thermal stability were favored. Emission bands with maxima near 14000 cm−1 were observed independent of shock pressure. They appear to be characteristic of defects created during the shock events, but it is uncertain whether the observed TL is connected with the iron impurities characteristic for amethyst.