Ionic compounds color centers

Salts of the bases MOH are crystalline, ionic solids, colorless except where the anion is colored. For the alkali metal ions the energies required to excite electrons to the lowest available empty orbitals could be supplied only by quanta far out in the vacuum ultraviolet (the transition 5p6 —5p56s in Cs+ occurs at 1000 A). However, colored crystals of compounds such as NaCl are sometimes encountered. Color arises from the presence in the lattice of holes and free electrons, called color centers, and such chromophoric disturbances can be produced by irradiation of the crystals with X rays and nuclear radiation. The color results from transitions of the electrons between energy levels in the holes in which they are trapped. These electrons behave in principle similarly to those in solvent cages in the liquid ammonia solutions, but the energy levels are differently spaced and consequently the colors are different and variable. Small excesses of metal atoms produce similar effects, since these atoms form M+ ions and electrons that occupy holes where anions would be in a perfect crystal. 

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