Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-7-2022

Abstract

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is used to establish models for electron traps in Ag-doped lithium tetraborate (Li2B4O7) crystals. When exposed at room temperature to ionizing radiation, electrons are trapped at interstitial Ag+ ions and holes are trapped at Ag+ ions on Li+ sites. The trapped electrons occupy a 5s1 orbital on the interstitial Ag ions (some of the unpaired spin density is also on neighboring ions). Three EPR spectra are assigned to electrons trapped at interstitial Ag ions. Their g values are near 1.99 and they have resolved hyperfine structure from 107Ag and 109Ag nuclei. The spectrum representing the largest concentration of trapped electrons has the unpaired spin shared by the interstitial Ag ion and an adjacent boron ion at its regular lattice site. A 10B enriched crystal verifies this assignment and an analysis of spin-Hamiltonian parameters yields information about the Ag and B orbitals occupied by the unpaired spin. The second spectrum has the unpaired spin shared equally by two Ag ions, one at an interstitial site and the other at an adjacent Li site. The third spectrum has a large Ag hyperfine interaction and a weak Li interaction. Optical absorption bands associated with the trapped electrons are observed between 225 and 500 nm. Thermal release of electrons from these traps is responsible for a prominent thermoluminescence peak near 150 °C, whereas optical release of the electrons at room temperature produces intense optically stimulated luminescence. Radiative recombination occurs at Ag2+ ions with emission peaking near 270 nm.

Comments

© 2022 Authors(s), published under an exclusive license with American Institute of Physics.

AFIT Scholar, as the repository of the Air Force Institute of Technology, furnishes the published Version of Record for this article in accordance with the sharing policy of the publisher, AIP Publishing. A 12-month embargo was observed.

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 131, 175106 as fully cited below and may be found at DOI: 10.1063/5.0088122.

[*] Author note: Brian Holloway was an AFIT PhD candidate at the time of publication.

DOI

10.1063/5.0088122

Source Publication

Journal of Applied Physics (ISSN 0021-8979 | e-ISSN 1089-7550)

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