Radiation damage and energy transfer in MnF2and RbMnF3crystals

Evidence is presented which indicates that radiation damage can be photochemically introduced in MnF 2 and RbMnF 3 crystals. At 77K radiation-induced defect-manganese complexes are formed which not only enhance the oscillator strength of the manganese optical transitions, but also act as terminal emission points for manganese excitons. Energy transfer to these defects occurs above 40K. The radiation-induced defects are shown to have annealing stages at 200K and about 300K in MnF 2 and very little stable damage is found for 300K irradiations. On the other hand, the RbMnF 3 300K irradiation does produce a significant amount of stable damage.