Luminescence of rutile structured crystalline silicon dioxide (stishovite)

•Luminescence of stishovite synthetic crystal and meteor impact in Arizona were studied.•It comprises of wide bands at 400 nm, 260 nm and sharp bands in near-infrared range.•Wide bands belong to an intrinsic defect of stishovite.•Sharp lines of NIR luminescence are ascribed to carbon quasi-molecular defect.•UV band is due to singlet–singlet and blue band is due to triplet–singlet transitions.

Luminescence spectrum of synthetic mono-crystalline stishovite comprises a slow blue band at ~400 nm (~3.1 eV) and a fast UV band at ~260 nm (~4.7 eV), as well as some bands in near-infrared range of spectra. The NIR luminescence of stishovite crystal, excited with lasers 532 nm, 248 nm and 193 nm as well as x-ray, possesses several sharp lines. A zero phonon line is situated at 787 nm (1.57 eV) and grows with cooling. An anti-Stokes line is located at 771 nm (1.68 eV). This line disappears with cooling. In a powder sample of stishovite created by shock waves generated by the impact of a 50-m-diameter meteorite in Arizona 50,000 years ago, the PL broad blue band is situated at 425 nm (2.9 eV), the UV band at ~260 nm (~4.7 eV), and the sharp lines, seen only under 193 nm laser, at 689 nm (1.789 eV), 694 nm (1.785 eV) and 706 nm (1.754 eV).We ascribe the fast UV luminescence to singlet–singlet transitions and the slow blue band to triplet–singlet transitions of the same intrinsic defect of stishovite in both types of samples. The blue band in stishovite crystal exhibits delayed luminescence of recombination nature, whereas the blue band of Arizona׳s powder sample does not exhibit such effect. This difference is explained by different surroundings of luminescence center in those samples. NIR luminescence of mono-crystalline stishovite is ascribed to carbon impurity penetrated in the sample from graphite heater. NIR luminescence of powder from Arizona has not yet found an explanation.