Abstract
Results are presented for the cathodoluminescence (CL) probe of an environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) with an energy-dispersive spectrometry analyzer (EDS), thermoluminescence (TL), thermo X-ray diffraction in situ (TXRD), and simultaneous differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetric analysis (DTA/TGA) techniques of gem-quality zultanite samples collected from the Mugla region of southwest Turkey. Micro-Raman measurements were also performed on different zultanite orientations and preheated aliquots to study the spectral phase transition diaspore-corundum also detected by the other thermal techniques in the 450 degrees C-500 degrees C thermal range. The thermal phenomena of TL are synchronous with this dehydroxylation process, involving consecutive breaking-linking bonds of Al-O, Cr-O, Fe-O, Al-OH, Cr-OH, and Fe-OH, including the formation of hydrolyzed ions such , and and redox reactions. Assuming that zultanite oxygen atoms are distributed as a hexagonal close packed layer, the experimental spectrum CL of zultanite is characteristic of the E-2 ->(4)A(2) transitions of substitutional Cr3+ luminescent centers in positions of Al3+ in sixfold coordination.