A photoluminescence study of REE³⁺ emissions in radiation-damaged zircon

Author(s)

Christoph Lenz, Lutz Nasdala

Abstract

A series of natural zircon samples (with U concentrations of 140-2600 ppm and ranging from well crystalline to severely radiation damaged) were investigated by means of REE3+ photoluminescence spectroscopy. We found systematic changes in REE3+ emissions depending on the accumulated radiation damage expressed by the effective time-integrated a-dose of zircon samples. Structural reconstitution as caused by dry annealing resulted in intensity gains and decreases of half-widths of REE3+ emissions. The band half-widths of distinct luminescence Stark’s levels of the 4F9/2 6H13/2 transition of Dy3+ (~17 250 cm-1; ~580 nm wavelength) and the 4F3/2 4I9/2 transition of Nd3+ (~11 300 cm-1; ~885 nm wavelength) were found to correlate sensitively with the degree of radiation damage accumulated. These REE3+ emissions are proposed as potential measure of the irradiation-induced structural disorder of zircon. The two emissions are considered particularly suitable because (1) they are commonly detected in PL spectra of natural zircon, and (2) they are hardly biased by other emissions or Stark’s levels. Preliminary calibration curves that relate band-width increases to the a dose were established using a suite of well-characterized Sri Lankan zircon. Band broadening upon increasing corpuscular self-irradiation is assigned to increasing structural destruction, i.e., the increasing perturbation of REE3+ cationic lattice sites. Possible advantages of REE3+ luminescence spectroscopy, complementary to Raman spectroscopy, as method to quantify structural radiation damage are discussed.

Organisation(s)

Department of Mineralogy and Crystallography

Journal

American Mineralogist: an international journal of earth and planetary materials

Volume

100

Pages

1123-1133

No. of pages

11

ISSN

0003-004X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2015-4894CCBYNCND

Publication date

05-2015

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

104026 Spectroscopy, 105116 Mineralogy

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geochemistry and Petrology, Geophysics

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/a-photoluminescence-study-of-ree3-emissions-in-radiationdamaged-zircon(0333ae68-66a5-40a8-a80a-3e9eb73f6fc7).html