On the Pekar and Perlin Calculation of F‐Center Lifetimes

In a recent paper PEKAR and PERLIN presented a calculation, based upon PEKAR's continuum theory of the F‐center, of the radiative lifetime of the first excited level of the F‐center. Their results are in order‐of‐magnitude agreement with the experimental results of SWANK and BROWN. In this paper we argue that such agreement is fortuitous and is the result of several invalid assumptions made by PEKAR and PERLIN: 1. as they mentioned, they have neglected to include an effective field correction in their calculation; 2. they have used the same electronic wave functions to calculate emission probabilities as one would use (in PEKAR's theory) to calculate absorption probabilities, a procedure which we have shown to be susceptible to suspicion; 3. these electronic wave functions are in fact not consistent with observed absorption oscillator strengths.