Topaz Visible Spectra (350 - 1250 nm)
Topaz can be naturally blue, pink, and various shades of brown or amber. Most blue topaz on the market
has been artifically colored with irradiation. The pink color comes from Cr3+ and the
amber and brown colors come from radiation damage. You can view a
suite of crystals
ranging from the natural colorless, irradiated brown, and irradiated plus heat-treated blue.
Image of the topaz absorption spectrum
Natural brown topaz
- Brown topaz, GRR 515 from Topaz Mountain, Utah. Natural color. plotted as 7.0 mm thick. Data files: Alpha. Beta.
Naturally blue topaz
Irradiated blue topaz
Chromium-containing pink topaz
- pink topaz
GRR 1393 from Katlang, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan, 4.41 mm thick.
- violet topaz, 300 - 2200 nm;
expanded visible region
300 - 900 nm
from Bobrovka, Ural Mountains, Russia, 3.0 mm thick, with Cr2O3=0.36, FeO=0.03,
MnO=0.02. Contributed data files from MN Taran, Kiev, Ukraine:
alpha 10 K;
beta 11 K;
gamma 11 K.