Luminogen

Luminescence from minerals

Luminescence from minerals

Luminogens are special atoms or their groups that make minerals luminesce (glow). The atoms do not actually belong to the crystal lattice of the mineral.

Such atoms or their groups are, for example

• Rare earth
• silver
• chrome
• manganese
• sulfur
• (UO ₂ ) ³⁺

Other atoms in the crystal lattice cause the luminescence ( iron , nickel ) to go out; these are called luminescent poisons .

Public exhibitions

In the “Nature Treasure Chamber and Paradise Garden” museum in Neuheide ( Ribnitz-Damgarten ) there are minerals that glow in different colors when exposed to short or long-wave UV light. The permanent exhibition “ terra mineralia ” in Freudenstein Castle in Freiberg / Saxony has a UV cabinet that shows fluorescent minerals.

source

• Gabriele Steffen: Color and Luminescence of Minerals. Introduction to the crystal chemical and crystal physical causes. Enke in Georg-Thieme-Verlag, Stuttgart / New York 2000, ISBN 3-13-118341-1 .
• Christoph Lenz: Luminescence - Spectacular and useful property of minerals. (No longer available online.) In: geoberg.de. Lutz Geißler, June 12, 2010, archived from the original on June 15, 2010 : "This text was published on November 16, 2005 on the old version of geoberg.de and was adopted." 

Web links

• Luminescence in Mineralienatlas.de
• Exhibition terra-mineralia in Freiberg in Mineralienatlas.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nature treasury and paradise garden. In: ribnitz-damgarten.de, accessed on October 30, 2018.