Luminescence processes, optical centers

Most optical centers show luminescence decay times in the nanoseconds-milliseconds range. However, many other physical processes involved in optical spectroscopy are produced in the picoseconds-femtoseconds range, and mnch more complicated instrumentation becomes necessary. For instance, interband Inminescence in solids, which is of particular interest in semiconductors, can involve decay times in the range of picoseconds. Pulses generated from solid state lasers have already reached this femtosecond domain. 

The mechanisms of luminescence decay from an optical center are of critical importance. In particular we have to know if there are any processes internal to the center or external to it, which reduce the luminescence efficiency. It is possible to define two decay times, ir, the true radiative decay time which a transition would have in absence of all non-radiative processes, and r, the actual observed decay time, which maybe temperature dependent, as will usually occur when there are internal non-radiative channels, and which may also be specimen dependent, as when there is energy transfer to other impurities in the mineral. The quantum yield may be close to unity if the radiationless decay rate is much smaller than the radiative decay. 

---