Intensity quenching of the F3+colour centre emission in lithium fluoride

Abstract
In order to evaluate the possibility of tunable F2/F3+ CW colour centre laser operation in LiF crystals at room temperature, the authors performed an investigation of the emission characteristics of gamma -irradiated LiF crystals under CW argon ion laser excitation at room temperature. They measured a strong quenching of the F3+ emission intensity that was dependent on the pumping laser power. The characteristic decay times of the F3+ luminescence bands were also investigated with different pumping powers and a model for the recombination kinetics is discussed.