Abstract
The nature of F electronic excitation energy transfer to OH- vibrational levels in KCl crystals is the exchange interaction, although the transfer process exhibits three temporally distinguishable components depending on the distance between excited F center and OH-. The critical distance as well as rate of the major energy transfer process in randomly distributed samples increases rapidly as OH- librational motions become active with temperature rise. The excited state character introduced into the OH- ground electronic state by perturbation is essential for the exchange interaction. The perturbation is brought about by the expanded electron cloud of excited F center for OH- associated to F center, whereas by librations and lattice vibrations perpendicular to the bond axis for isolated OH- . F excitation quenching efficiency by OH- is dependent on the variation of the critical distance rather than the rate as the rate is much faster than the normal F bleach recovery rate.