Geologic Application of Cathodoluminescence of Silicates

Cathodoluminescence from silicates has been known since the end of last century and early in this century, when Crookes (1879) and Goldstein (1907) observed that certain minerals, like zircon and quartz, emit light during bombardment with cathode-rays in evacuated glass tubes. Since then, a large number of silicates have been found to emit visible light during electron bombardment (Marshall 1988).