Abstract
Rose quartz is an interesting mineral with numerous impurities that have been studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), cathodoluminescence (CL), ion beam luminescence (IBL), radioluminescence (RL), thermoluminescence (TL) and optical absorption (OA). After HF etching, rose quartz from Oliva de Plasencia (Caceres, Spain) shows under SEM the presence of other silicate phases such as dumortierite
[
Al
6.5
-
7
(
BO
3
)
(
SiO
4
)
3
(
O
,
OH
)
3
]
. The OA spectrum of rose quartz suggests that these inclusions are the cause of coloration of rose quartz. The luminescence (CL, IBL, RL, TL) spectra behavior, at both room temperature and lower, confirms that the
∼
340
nm
emission could be associated with Si–O strain structures, including non-bridging oxygen or silicon vacancy–hole centers; the observed
∼
400
nm
emission could be associated with recombination of a hole trapped adjacent to a substitutional, charge-compensated aluminum alkali ion center; the
∼
500
nm
emission could be associated with substitutional
Al
3
+
and the
∼
700
nm
peak could be associated with
Fe
3
+
point defects in
Si
4
+
sites. These results suggest that, while defect properties of rose quartz are not greatly dissimilar to those of purer forms of quartz and silica, further research seems necessary to determine criteria for the evolution of the newly-formed self-organized microstructures in the rose quartz lattice under irradiation.