Energy Transport in SiO2 Crystals: Luminescence Excitation Spectra of Stishovite and α-Quartz

Abstract The migration of elementary electronic excitations was studied in a single crystal of stishovite and compared with migration in a crystal of α-quartz and polycrystalline stishovite powder. The research method is based on comparing the transfer of absorbed energy to luminescence centers, used as detectors of quasiparticles, and the near-surface nonradiative annihilation of electronic excitations. A sign of migration is the appearance of some minima in the photoluminescence (PLE) excitation spectrum in the region of maxima in the intrinsic absorption spectrum. The PLE spectrum of stishovite contains the first minimum at 9.8 eV, indicating the migration of electronic excitations and the existence of an intrinsic absorption band in stishovite at 9.8 eV. In α-quartz, the first minimum in the PLE spectrum is located at 10.5 eV and corresponds well to the intrinsic absorption band of the exciton.