Characterization through cathodoluminescence and thermoluminescence of α-SiO2 single crystals before and after γ-radiation treatments : contribution to the evaluation of the influence of defects on the frequency-shifts

The fiability and performances of quartz resonators are -in particular-dependent on point defects including chemical impurities either in substitution for the Si sites or in interstitial positions in the α-SiO
₂
lattice. Such a research work is devoted to cathodoluminescence (CL) and thermoluminescence (TL) studies, before and after γ-radiation treatments, on different single crystals of α-SiO
₂
[one being natural and four from hydrothermal processes]. Cathodoluminescence and thermoluminescence were selected as characterization techniques due to their complementarities concerning in particular their abilities to the detection of point defects (mainly impurities and ion vacancies) by their luminescence emission.