Fast electron-hole plasma luminescence from track-cores in heavy-ion irradiated wide-band-gap crystals

Measurements of fast luminescence decays and time-resolved spectra reveal novel ultra-short-lived luminescence (several tens ps) in heavy-ion irradiated single crystals of LiF, NaF, NaCl, KCl, KBr, KI, RbI, CsCl, CsBr, CsI, α-alumina and MgO. The luminescence is characterized by its super-linear increase to excitation density, non-tailing decay, sample dependence and temperature-insensitive decay and yield. The luminescence can not be attributed to known excited species, but vigorous interaction among dense electron-hole pairs, i.e. plasma.