The radiative relaxation of exciton-like formations in KCl-Na single crystal has been studied by experimental methods of luminescent spectroscopy. The amplifying effect of the radiation intensity with a maximum at 2.8 eV up to 500 times as compared to pure KCl has been detected in KCl-Na. The luminescence efficiency of an exciton-like formation increases with rise in: sodium ions concentration ( 10 ÷ 1000 ppm), thermal exposure ( 500 • C ÷ 600 • C ) and the degree of uniaxial deformation along <100> and <110> crystallographic directions. Previously, such a scale of the luminescence enhancement effect has not been registered in KCl matrix at room temperature. At high sodium concentrations (1000 ppm) in KCl-Na crystals, the additional intense emission with a maximum at 3.1 eV has also been revealed, which is typical for pair sodium ions. It is interpreted that the exciton-like formation in the sodium field with the maximum quantum yield of luminescence is formed by recombination assembly of electron-hole pairs due to the mobility of unrelaxed holes.
For the first time, the stability of KCl single crystals doped with sodium impurity ions was analyzed via the optical absorption and luminescence methods. Using the characteristic bands of optical absorption, as well as of X-ray and tunnel luminescence, ascribed to radiation defects and exciton-like formations localized near sodium impurity, the removal of Na+ ions from regular cation sites into nanosized clusters in KCl:Na crystals stored for a long time at room temperature was demonstrated. At the same time, the subsequent annealing of such “decayed” crystals at high temperature (400–700 °C) led to a partial incorporation of sodium impurity ions back into cation sites and the restoration of a homogeneous distribution of Na+ in the KCl:Na lattice. With an increase in the quenching temperature, the restoration degree continuously increased until it reached the saturation level (about 80% of the characteristics of a freshly grown crystal). The detectable/disappearing X-ray-induced absorption bands at 6.3 and 3.5 eV (respectively ascribed to interstitial chlorine ions and atoms localized near Na+), as well as the luminescence bands at 2.8 and 3.1 eV, typical of recombinationally generated exciton-like formations near Na+ or Na+-Na+, were the indicators of sodium ion redistribution in the crystal lattice.
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