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Abstract
We have investigated charged particle emission and luminescence at bending fracture of three kinds of minerals—quartz, albite, and microcline—in a vaccum. Charged particle emission starts at the instant of brittle fracture, and lasts several tens of seconds. Luminescence starts sharply at fracture, and decays in several tens of milliseconds, indicating that fractoluminescence was directly caused by bond-breaking at fracture.
In fractoluminescence spectra of quartz, three emission bands were observed at about 250, 430 and 640 nm. In albite, two emission bands were observed at about 430 and 600 nm. In microcline, three emission bands at about 450, 570 and 740 nm were observed. These bands should originate from defect centers around fracture zones excited by bond-breaking.