Database of luminescent Minerals


CASSITERITE


Chemical Formula: SnO2

Familly: Oxides and hydroxides

Status: IMA-GP

Crystal System: Tetragonal

Mineral for Display: No


Luminescence:


UV Type Main color Intensity Observation Frequency
Short Waves (254 nm):      Yellow WeakRarely
Other colors LW:     
,
Other colors SW:     
Yellowish ,
 

Phosphorescence (in the common meaning of the term) seen by naked eye:


No Data

Main Activator(s) and spectrum:


Most Common Activator: Sn2+

Other activators:            Sn3+ , W ,

Peaks in the spectrum (nm):

Sn2+  : very large band at 475nm (200nm half-width) 

Sn2+ : very large band at 535 - 537nm (140nm half-width) 

Sn2+ : very large band at 550 nm (140nm half-width) 


Spectrum: Michael Gaft, Petah Tikva, Israel. Plot: Institute of Mineralogy, University of Vienna, Austria, with permission of the authors.

      ...

  To the spectrum gallery (2 spectra in the gallery)


Comments on activators and spectra:


Blue luminescence: activator W

Yellow luminescence: Ti
(Based on Cathodoluminescence, Waychunas)

 

Under UV lamp excitation cassiterite samples are luminescent only at low temperatures.

But with powerful laser excitation (337 nm) even at 300 K or at low temperature (77k) bright intrinsic luminescence (Sn2+ and Sn3+) (Gaft)

The spectrum under powerful laser at 300K is similar to those at 77 K with lamp excitation.

 

Decay time of luminescence has two components, namely 100 ns and 280 ns (Gaft and Vorontsova 1982; Gaft et al. 1988).


Best Locality for luminescence(*):


(*)Data are not exhaustive and are limited to the most important localities for fluorescence


Bibliographical Reference for luminescence:



Mineralogical Reference on internet:


  http://www.mindat.org/show.php?name=Cassiterite

  http://webmineral.com/data/Cassiterite.shtml

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A request providing no result means only that no such reference exists in the database, but it does not mean that what you are looking for does not exist, just not to our knowledge. If you think you have found an error or omission, please let us know via the contact page being sure to cite the source of information.

 


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