On the correlation between annealing and variabilities in pulsed-luminescence from quartz

Properties of luminescence lifetimes in quartz related to annealing between 500 and 900∘C have been investigated. The luminescence was pulse-stimulated at 470 nm from sets of granular quartz annealed at 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900∘C. The lifetimes decrease with annealing temperature from about 42 to 33μs when the annealing temperature is increased from 500 to 900∘C. Luminescence lifetimes are most sensitive to duration of annealing at 600∘C, decreasing from 40.2±0.7μs by as much as 7μs when the duration of annealing is changed from 10 to 60 min. However, at 800-900∘C lifetimes are essentially independent of annealing temperature at about 33μs. Increasing the exciting beta dose causes an increase in the lifetimes of the stimulated luminescence in the sample annealed at 800∘C but not in those annealed at either 500 or 600∘C. The temperature-resolved distribution of luminescence lifetimes is affected by thermal quenching of luminescence. These features may be accounted for with reference to two principal luminescence centres involved in the luminescence emission process.