The electronic structure of bismuth germanate

Scintillation studies of Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) down to a temperature of 6K

“…The first model argues that the radiative transitions from the upper 3 P 1 to the ground 1 S 0 state of the Bi 3+ ion give rise to the main emission band at 2.5 eV [3,25]. This model is also supported by calculations of the BGO electronic structure, indicating that the bismuth states are responsible for the dominant contribution to the top of valence band and the bottom of the conduction band [26]. The second model assigns the intrinsic luminescence of the crystal to the emission of self-trapped excitons [17,24,27].…”