The basic principles of quartz radiofluorescence dynamics in the UV – analytical, numerical and experimental results

An analytical solution for the behaviour of quartz radiofluorescence (RF) in the UV-band is described based on a kinetic model involving one (deep) electron trap and two kinds of recombination centres. This model has been previously used to provide a qualitative description of quartz UV-RF. The derived numerical solution of differential equations describing charge transport in quartz can successfully reproduce experimental data. Here, this set of differential equations is solved analytically by assuming a dynamic balance during the RF stimulation. The analytical results are compared with numerical solutions and experimentally derived data. With the analytical solutions a better understanding of common natural quartz UV-RF behaviour is provided, and several experimentally observed phenomena can now be explained. Furthermore the comparison of two different kinetic models shows that the characteristic decay of the UV-RF signal in preheated quartz is attributed to an increasing competition of radiative and non-radiative centres during RF.