Abstract
NATURAL zircons generally luminesce yellow or orange under ultra-violet light1,2. The luminescence is not caused by the tetravalent uranium responsible for the absorption spectra of zircon1,3. Because there have been speculations on the origin of the luminescence, I have studied several zircons which gave a yellow luminescence and I have found that there are at least two main types of luminescent centres in zircon. The varying proportions of these centres give the differences in the colour of the luminescence.
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NICHOLAS, J. Origin of the Luminescence in Natural Zircon. Nature 215, 1476 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/2151476a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2151476a0
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