Abstract
Irradiation of KI in the fundamental edge results in a temperature dependent rate of F‐center growth predominantly proportional to the inverse of the number of F‐centers already produced. This is related to a new experimental result – the quenching of low temperature luminescence in irradiatively colored crystals. In addition, the production of F‐centers by absorption in perturbed exciton bands and the intrinsic production of α‐centers are discussed.