Characterization of historical minai and colorful luster glaze ceramics, using ionoluminescence technique

Highlights: • Minai and colorful luster glaze ceramics are studied by IL for the first time. • Specific bands are observed in the IL spectra of tin-opacified lead-rich glazes. • IL is capable of non-destructive characterization of different types of glazes. Some historical minai and colorful luster glaze ceramic samples were investigated by means of ionoluminescence technique. The complementary ion beam analysis techniques RBS and PIXE were employed to reveal their elemental compositions and depth profiles. The samples were discovered in the historical site of Tappeh Ghale in Iran, which dates back to 12th century. The ionoluminescence spectra of the samples reveal the strong dependence of the luminescence bands, mostly originating from oxygen-deficient centers, on the elemental compositions of the glaze samples. It is inferred that most of the luminescence centers likely have been created during the formation process of tin-opacified lead-rich glazes. The demonstrated capabilities of ionoluminescence in the current work, confirm the possibility of its application for fast and non-destructive characterization of historical glaze samples.