Luminescence as “forbidden” electronic transitions in diamond

Summary

Arguments are adduced to show that the doublet centred at 4152 Å occurring in the spectrum of all fluorescing diamonds arises from ‘forbidden’ transitions analogous to the forbidden³P-¹S transitions in the spectrum of C I. On the basis of this analogy, fluorescence lines are also expected to occur at about 8816 Å and 7849 Å, analogous to the³P-¹D and¹D-¹S transitions in C I. Of these, the former should also occur in absorption, while the latter should not occur in absorption and should be emitted only if the exciting radiation has a wavelength shorter than 4152 Å. A line has actually been found at 7930 Å, satisfying the latter conditions. The former line could not be recorded being outside the limit of sensitivity of the photographic plate.