emission spectra at room temperature were recorded on an Edinburgh
Instruments FLS 980 PL spectrometer equipped with a double grating
monochromator system on both excitation and emission arms. A continuous
wave 450 W ozone-free Xe-arc lamp was used as an excitation light
source. The front-facing sample holder measuring assembly was chosen
to detect emission from the same side of illumination with an R928P
PMT detector from Hamamatsu operating at 253 K for optimal dark count
reduction. Excitation wavelengths of 270 and 340 nm were chosen to
access AEO-specific emission features30 (link) by using a slit width of 1 nm for both excitation and emission slits
to record the emission signal in steps of 2 nm up to 800 nm. High-vacuum
tight-fused silica cells equipped with optical cuvettes allow for
a final re-annealing step of ceramic fragments up to 1173 K under
defined gas atmospheres [p(O2) < 10–5 mbar, p(O2) = 650 mbar]
to purify and dehydroxylate the external surfaces without breaking
the vacuum prior to optical measurements. In order to investigate
surface excitonic luminescence, the ceramic specimens were measured
under both static high vacuum conditions [p(O2) < 10–5 mbar] and pure oxygen [p(O2) = 100 mbar] as a PL quencher.