Luminescence from LiNbO3

LiNbO3 has been found to emit strong luminescence when irradiated by a ruby laser beam. The luminescence varies linearly with input power, is broad band, independent of crystal orientation, and decreases exponentially with the inverse absolute temperature, as does the luminescence decay time. The effect is closely related to so‐called ``optical index damage'', and provides a new means for studying that phenomenon.