F-Center

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An F-Center is a type of crystallographic defect in which an anionic vacancy in a crystal filled by one or more electrons, depending on the charge of the missing ion in the crystal. Electrons in such a vacancy tend to light in the visible spectrum, such that a material that is usually transparent becomes colored. Thus the origin of the name, F-center, which originates from the German Farbenzentrum. The translation of this term also provides the synonym color center, which can also refer to such defects. Solids having F-centers are paramagnetic in nature.Greater the number of F-centers ,more intense is the color of the compound.F-centers can be created say by passing sodium vapours over NaCl, when Cl- ions combine with the metal ions producing non-stoichiometric defects within the lattice.The electrons released in this process diffuse to occupy the vacant places.