Fast Intrinsic Emissions of Wide-Gap Oxides Under Electron Irradiation

The emission spectra have been measured in the range of 1.6–9.0eV under irradiation of wide-gap oxides by single electron pulses (3 ns, 300kV). A fast (τ < 3 ns) continuous and temperature-independent emission, connected mainly with the transitions of hot holes between the levels of the valence band of oxides, can be separated in these spectra at 300–600 K, when the inertial emissions (5–7eV) of localized excitations undergo a strong thermal quenching. It is suggested that a drastic decrease of the intensity of this so-called hole intraband luminescence (IBL) in a short-wavelength spectral region is caused by the lowering of the density of states at the edges of the valence band and, therefore, supplies information on the width of an anion valence band E^v. The drastic decrease of the IBL intensity takes place at 6.4–8.6eV in BaMgAl₁₀O₁₇, SrAl₂O₄, MgAl₄O₇, MgO and BeO, that agrees satisfactorily with the values of E^v in these systems obtained by other methods.