DOPANT-SENSITIVE LUMINESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY OF YTTRIUM-ALUMINUM-GARNETBY HIGH-CURRENT ELECTRON PULSES

Pulsed cathode luminescence (PCL) spectroscopy is developed to detect dopant-d elements: Cr, Mn, Co, Fe, V, and Ni in aluminum garnet crysta ls. PCL is excited by 2 ns electron pulses with high current density 7 00 +/- 100 A/cm(2) and the energy of electrons 180 +/- 20 keV. In cont rast to conventional spectroscopies, which require low temperatures to suppress thermal quenching and produce measurable intensity of lumine scence, our method works at room temperatures. The high-current PCL sp ectroscopy allows us to discriminate the new lines and bands of d elem ents which are inactive in photo- and x-ray luminescence. A large port ion of the PCL spectrum can be taken simultaneously due to the high in tensity of luminescence. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.