ORIGIN OF SHORT-WAVELENGTH LUMINESCENCE AND POINT-DEFECTS IN BERYLLIUM-OXIDE

This paper reviews recent advances in the electronic excitation dynami cs (EE) of beryllium oxide as well as the origin of the luminescence a chieved in the last few years. Study of the elementary point defects a nd of the radiative decay of low-energy EE in BeO shows that a unique situation is realized when, during electron and hole recombination, th e preferred creation of the STE2 proceeds, and its radiative annihilat ion determines the BeO intrinsic luminescence at 4.9 eV. The character istics of this luminescence inherit no properties from the recombinati on centers.