OPTICAL-ABSORPTION AND THERMO-LUMINESCENCE OF SYNTHETIC QUARTZ CRYSTALS IRRADIATED WITH X-RAYS OR GAMMA-RAYS

Recently, pure and high-quality synthetic quartz crystals have become commercially available. It is likely that upon irradiation, these crystals may exhibit absorption bands characteristic of quartz. Partial thermal bleaching characteristics of these absorption bands may indicate a correlation between the destruction of centers (responsible for these bands) and the thermoluminescence exhibited by the crystals. With this end in mind, optical absorption and thermoluminescence of pure high-quality synthetic quartz crystals irradiated with X rays or gamma rays were studied; the results of this work form the content of this letter.