Effect of electron beam irradiation dose on luminescence and optical absorption of LiF crystals

It is shown experimentally that local electron irradiation of LiF crystals by focused electron beam with relatively low electrons energy (E = 50 keV) and doses of Q = 10-100 mC/cm2 results in the formation of Li nanoparticles and luminescent centers in near-surface layer less than 30 μm thick. The formation of spherical Li nanoparticles is confirmed by computer simulation in dipole quasistatic approximation. When electron irradiation dose increases from 10 mC/cm2 up to 35 mC/cm2 the amplitude of plasmon absorption band of Li nanoparticles increases by 6 times and luminescence intensity increases by 30-40 times. Local Li nanoparticles and luminescent centers formation in LiF crystals by focused electron beam may be promising in integrated optics for fabrication of non-linear optical elements, elements with metamaterial properties, submicrometer two-color light sources and for multilevel optical information recording.