Spatial structures based on color centers created by electrons in lithium fluoride crystals: Absorption and luminescence characteristics

We have shown that in spatial structures based on color centers created by electrons in a lithium fluoride crystal, the distances between centers reach 1.6 nm and 3.6 nm for F₁ and F₂ centers respectively. This suggests considerable potential opportunities for using electron technology to form structures in the crystals with spatial resolution of such an order of magnitude. We measured the decrease in fluorine content on the irradiated surface of the crystal. We found the concentrations of F₁, F₂, F₃⁺, F₃(R₂), and F₄(N₁) centers. We established that the specific characteristics of color center formation by electrons leads to an increase in the efficiency of creation of F₃ and F₄ centers. We determined the decrease in the average luminescence lifetimes of F₂ and F₃⁺ centers as a result of concentration quenching. We observed distortion of the luminescence contour for F₂ centers as a result of absorption of its short-wavelength portion by other centers and emission of radiation by the latter in its long-wavelength portion. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 102–110, January–February, 2008.