MgAl2O4 spinel is important optical material for harsh radiation environment and other important applications. The kinetics of thermal annealing of the basic electron (F, F+) and hole (V) centers in stoichiometric MgAl2O4 spinel irradiated by fast neutrons and protons is analyzed in terms of diffusion-controlled bimolecular reactions. Properties of MgAl2O4 single crystals and optical polycrystalline ceramics are compared. It is demonstrated that both transparent ceramics and single crystals, as well as different types of irradiation show qualitatively similar kinetics, but the effective migration energy Ea and pre-exponent D0 are strongly correlated. Such correlation is discussed in terms of the so-called Meyer-Neldel rule known in chemical kinetics of condensed matter. The results for the irradiated spinel are compared with those for sapphire, MgO and other radiation-resistant materials.

The emission spectra and the excitation spectra of various emissions have been measured in LiF crystals at 9 K using VUV radiation of 10-33 eV. Contrary to the luminescence of selftrapped excitons (3.4 eV), the efficiency of several extrinsic emissions (4.2, 4.6 and 5.8 eV) is very low in the region of an exciton absorption (12.4-14.2 eV). A single exciting photon of 28-33 eV is able to create a primary electron-hole (e-h) pair and a secondary exciton. The tunnel phosphorescence has been detected after the irradiation of LiF by an electron beam or X-rays at 6 K, and several peaks of thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) at 12-170 K appeared at the heating of the sample. It was confirmed that the TSL at 130-150 K is related to the diffusion of self-trapped holes (V K centres). The TSL peak at ~160 K is ascribed to the thermal ionisation of F′ centres. The TSL at 20-30 K and 50-65 K is caused by the diffusion of interstitial fluorine ions (I centres) or H interstitials, respectively. The TSL peak at ~13 K, the most intense after electron or X-irradiation, cannot be detected after LiF irradiation by VUV radiation, selectively forming excitons or e-h pairs. The creation of a spatially correlated anion exciton and an e-h pair is needed for the appearance of this peak: an exciton decays into an F-H pair, a hole forms a V K and an electron transforms H into I (an F-I-V K group is formed) or an F centre into a two-electron F′ centre (an F′-H-V K group). The analysis of the elementary components of the 9-16 K TSL showed that a phonon-induced radiative tunnel recombination of F′-V K (5.6 eV), F-H (~3 eV) and F-V K (3.4 eV) occurs within these groups.Short Title: Low-temperature excitonic, electron-hole and interstitial-vacancy processes in LiF

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Processes of radiation creation and annealing of Frenkel defects as well as electron-hole processes have been studied in LiF single crystals with a various content of impurity ions by means of highly sensitive method of thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) and other optical methods. In highly pure LiF crystals, X-irradiated at 4.2 K, the TSL peaks connected with the annealing of interstitial fluorine ions (25-40 K) or atoms, i.e. H centres (50-65 K) and self-trapped holes (120-140 K) have been separated. For the first time, the creation spectra of the TSL peaks at 480 and 550 K by 10-33 eV-photon irradiation at 295 K have been measured. The anomalously high creation efficiency of the TSL peak at 480 K by 11.7-12.3 eV and 26-27 eV photons is interpreted as the creation of near-impurity electronic excitations both, directly by photons and by hot conduction electrons.