The influence of excitation density on luminescence decay in Y 3 Al 5 O 12 :Ce and BaF 2 crystals at room temperature was investigated for the first time using pulsed free electron laser radiation in vacuum ultraviolet. Increased excitation density led to the remarkable shortening of luminescence decays with nonexponential behaviour in both crystals. The possible reasons for dramatic changes in the dynamics of electronic excitations in insulators excited by free electron laser radiation will be discussed.
IntroductionThe investigation of decay kinetics of luminescence is a very sensitive technique to learn about nature of electronic excitations in solids. Using weak and moderate excitation densities (ED) the processes due to elementary excitations can be monitored. Further increase of ED leads to their mutual interactions and other cooperative effects. In theVUV energy range such investigations of wide-gap solids have been carried mostly out using weak tuneable sources, such as pulsed discharge lamps and synchrotron radiation (SR). High-power, but non-selective excitation by "white" hard X-rays [1], by particles like ion beams [2,3], and by pulsed electrons [3,4] has been used for such purposes in the past. The XUV radiation from storage ring [5] and generated by a plasma laser [6] was applied as well. However, excitation provided by above-mentioned sources populates many of the available relaxation channels thereby enormously complicating the analysis of processes. In order to investigate the dynamics of relaxation processes in solids, a pulsed excitation with variable energy and intensity in a large dynamic range would be an ideal source. In the VUV range, only free electron laser (FEL) radiation is suitable for this purpose practically fulfilling these requirements. We reporting here the first results of the luminescence investigation of crystals excited by VUV radiation from the unique FEL source [7] that was constructed by an international consortium at the HASYLAB at DESY (Hamburg, Germany).