Light emission from semiconducting optical properties

It should not be supposed that crystal defects enter into the picture only as nuisances which the chemist seeks to avoid or eliminate. Actually, certain optical and electrical properties of oxides, sulfides, and halides have been found to depend strongly on the nature and extent of crystal defects. Indeed, semiconductivity, fluorescence (absorption of radiation and emission of less energetic radiation), and phosphorescence (delayed fluorescence) of some salts may be spectacularly increased, not only by a small stoichiometric excess of one of the constituents, but also by addition of very tiny quantities of a foreign ion. Perhaps the best known example is the case of zinc sulfide which, when precipitated from aqueous solution and dried at low temperatures, shows negligible fluorescence upon exposure to ultraviolet light. When the sulfide is heated to... 

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