Light emission from the dissolution of gamma irradiated alkali halides in water

Abstract

We have been studying the primary processes in the radiation chemistry of aqueous and organic systems. Evidence has been accumulating for the presence of correlated ion pairs in the irradiated liquid and frozen aqueous solutions. Reactions of the mobile electrons and holes with the appropriate scavengers have been found to be interdependent. In order to explain the data, it was suggested that the primarily formed electrons and holes are not randomly distributed in the system, but instead move about as correlated electron-hole pairs which may be imagined as solid state excitons. I wish to report here some of our recent experimental evidence pointing towards the possible involvement of triplet excitons of Frenkel type. When gamma irradiated alkali halides are dissolved in water, stored energy is transferred to the solvent. Earlier studies of light emission from this process have been verified and extended.