UV and yellow luminescence in phosphorus doped crystalline and glassy silicon dioxide

Luminescence of phosphorus doped crystalline α-quartz and phosphosilicate glass with content 3P2O5·7SiO2 was studied. Water and OH groups are found by IR spectra in these materials. The spectrum of luminescence contains many bands in the range 1.5–5.5eV. The luminescence bands in UV range at 4.5–5eV are similar in those materials. Decay duration in exponential approximation manifests a time constant about 37ns. Also a component in µs range was detected. PL band of µs component is shifted to low energy with respect to that of ~37ns component. This shift is about 0.6eV. It is explained as singlet–triplet splitting of excited state. Below 14K increase of luminescence kinetics duration in µs range was observed and it was ascribed to zero magnetic field splitting of triplet excited state of the center.