Band Gap of Forsterite

Optical absorption and reflectivity measurements on synthetic forsterite show that this silicate has a wide band gap of the order of 8.4 electron volts; thus it resembles other pure insulating oxides such as MgO. For natural olivines, in which divalent cations, mainly Fe(2+), can replace Mg(2+), all the optical absorption bands between the lattice overtones in the infrared and the first excitonic transition at 8.4 electron volts are due to the presence of iron.