Characterization of the E1′ center in quartz: Role of aluminum hole centers and oxygen vacancies

The growth of E1′ centers in a variety of natural and synthetic quartz crystals has been investigated by employing the electron spin resonance technique. It has been reported that the growth of E1′ centers, formed by irradiation and subsequent annealing at 300 °C for 15 min, scale with the concentration of the aluminum hole center, [AlO4]0, till a limit. Later, the E1′ centers show saturation even when the [AlO4]0-center continues to grow. For quartz with low efficiency of the formation of [AlO4]0-center or irradiated with low accumulated doses, the intensity of E1′ center was small where not all oxygen vacancies are converted to the E1′ center. Thus, besides the availability of a number of oxygen vacancy sites, the number of holes released from the [AlO4]0-center plays an important role in the formation of E1′ centers in quartz