Topaz spectra

Topaz Visible Spectra (350 - 1250 nm)

Topaz, Al₂(SiO₄)F₂ 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

naturally blue topaz GIA 2828 from Saint Anns Mine, Karoi District, Zimbabwe, Plotted as 10 mm thick. Data Files: Alpha; Beta; Gamma.
naturally blue topaz GRR 1894 from Volodarsk Volynskii, Ukraine, Plotted as 10 mm thick.

Irradiated blue topaz

blue, neutron-irradiated topaz GRR 1632 from Nigeria. Plotted as 3.0 mm thick. This is typical of some of the blue topaz now on the market. Data Files: Alpha; Beta: Gamma
blue, electron-irradiated topaz GRR 10 plotted as 10 mm thick. Data Files: Alpha; Beta; Gamma
blue, electron-irradiated topaz Darker region in sample GRR 825 from Brazil. Plotted as 5.0 mm. Data files Alpha; Beta
blue, electron-irradiated topaz Lighter, purer gblue region in sample GRR 825 from Brazil. Plotted as 5.0 mm. Data files Alpha; Beta

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; beta; gamma.

Link to an extensive collection of references to mostly color and visible spectroscopy of topaz.

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last upgraded 10-July-2022