Beryl spectra

Color in the Beryl group.

The color of beryl, ideally Be₃Al₂Si₆O₁₈, is usually dominated by its Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ content. Fe²⁺ produces pale blue color, Fe³⁺ produces golden-yellow color, and when both Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ are present, the color is a darker blue. Green color in iron-containg beryls commonly results from a mixture of blue and yellow. Green color can also come from Cr³⁺ as is found in the variety emerald. Green color is also caused by V³⁺. Manganese-containing beryls are pink to red color. The color is pale pink when the manganese is present as Mn²⁺ and red when Mn³⁺ is present. Some blue beryls originally found at the Maxixie mine in Brazil have color from radiation-induced color centers. Pezzottaite, CsBe₂LiAl₂Si₆O₁₈, and bazzite, Be₃Sc₂Si₆O₁₈, are both related to beryl and show similar colors. In the spectra of all these minerals, sharp features in the near-infrared region arise from water molecules in the c-axis channels of the beryl structure.

Beryl Visible Spectra (generally 350 - 2500 nm)

spectrums of representative beryls

Aquamarine (Blue beryl)

GRR 317 spectrum; Beryl, variety aquamarine , Lone Pine, California, 0.877 mm thick. Data Files: a; c
GRR 459 spectrum; Beryl, variety aquamarine , Mourne Mountains, Ireland, 2.15 mm thick. Including Near-IR. Data Files: a; c;
GRR 1488 spectrum; Beryl, variety aquamarine , Lajes Pintada, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, 5.531 mm thick. Data Files: a; c;

GRR 1754 spectrum; Beryl, variety aquamarine , Vldar Ukinsky, Ukraine. Heat treated to turn it from greenish-yellow to blue. 7.63 mm thick. Data Files: a; c;
GRR 1780 spectrum; Beryl, variety aquamarine , Tatu Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil. 2.45 mm thick. Data Files: a; c;
GRR 2536a spectrum; Beryl, variety pale blue, Mt. Antero, Colorado, 8.663 mm thick. This does not show the characteristic aquamarine feature near 650 nm.
GRR 3557 spectrum: Beryl, variety aquamarine , Pakistan, 3.303 mm thick. Data Files: a; c;
MT vp-33-1 spectrum; Beryl, variety aquamarine (pale blue), Siberia, Russia, plotted as 10 mm thick. Contributed data from M. Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.
MT Snezn spectrum; Beryl, variety aquamarine (blue), Sneznoye deposit, eastern Siberia, plotted as 10 mm thick. Contributed data from M. Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Synthetic Aquamarine (Blue to green beryl)

MT A734 spectrum; Beryl, composition unknown, plotted as 10 mm thick. Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.
MT 673 spectrum; Beryl, iron-rich, plotted as 10 mm thick. Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.
MT 728 spectrum; Beryl, containing nickel, plotted as 10 mm thick Expanded region, 6K; Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Maxixie Beryl (Blue beryl)

GRR 704 spectrum; Blue beryl from Brazil with the Maxixie color , a slightly turbid 23.15 mm thick crystal, looking down the c-axis. The color is determined by radiation-induced color centers involving ions such as carbonate in the c-axis channels. Data Files: a; c;

GRR 1716 spectrum; Beryl, variety Maxixie , Alto Ligonha, Mozambique. A 5.387 mm thick slab looking down the c-axis. Data Files: a; c;

Bazzite (Blue)

GRR 819 spectrum; pale blue bazzite from Naters, Switzerland. 0.137 mm thick.
scanned data; bazzite from Kazakhistan, from Figure 3 of Platinov et al. (1981). Normalized to 1.0 cm thick. The color comes from iron in the crystal. Data Files: a ; c;

Emerald (Green beryl)

GRR 3040 spectrum; from Yemen; 2.043 mm thick. Data Files: a; c;
GRR 3570 spectrum; Beryl, variety emerald from Afghanistan. 0.859 mm thick Data Files: a; c;
Emer3 spectrum; Beryl, variety emerald, from Malyshevo, Ural Mountains, Russia. Normalized to 1 cm thick; expanded data in the chromium spectral region. Data File: Contributed data from Anton Vasiliev, LAL, Moscow: a; c;
Beryl spectrum; Beryl, variety emerald from, Miku, Zambia, (light green) showing both chromium and iron features; 2.14 mm thick. Data Files: Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine: a; c;
Beryl spectrum; Emerald, variety emerald from Jos, Nigeria, (light green) showing both chromium and iron features; 0.95 mm thick. Data Files: Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine: a; c;

Synthetic Emerald

RDS 65674 spectrum; Synthetic emerald (green) grown from a flux by Chatham, 0.76 mm thick. Data Files: a; c;
Emerald Cr-9-67 spectrum; Synthetic emerald (green) grown by the hydrothermal method in Novosibirsk, Russia, 1.1 mm thick. Note the total absence of iron and copper features in this spectrum. Data Files: Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine: a; c;
Emerald A-587b spectrum; Synthetic emerald (green) grown by the hydrothermal method in Novosibirsk, Russia, 1.058 mm thick. Note the additional major features from copper (750-1200 nm) and minor features from iron (373 nm) in this spectrum. Data Files: Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine: a; c;

Golden Beryl

GRR 226 spectrum; Beryl (yellow), Locality unknown, but probably New Mexico, 3.95 mm thick. The color is primarily determined by Fe³⁺ which absorbs the short wavelengths and to a lesser extent by Fe²⁺ which absorbs near 800 nm. Data Files: a; c;
GRR 309 spectrum; Beryl (golden), Goias, Brazil, 3.306 m thick. Data Files: a; c ;
GRR 795 spectrum; Beryl (golden), Zambia, 2.88 mm thick.
MT yellow spectrum; Beryl, var. golden (golden yellow), Sneznoye deposit, eastern Siberia, plotted as 10 mm thick. Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.
MT heated to blue spectrum; Beryl, var. aquamarine (blue), Sneznoye deposit, eastern Siberia, orignally yellow crystal heated at 400 C for 30 minutes to turn it blue. Plotted as 10 mm thick. Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Red Beryl

GRR 602 spectrum; Beryl (red), Wah Wah Mountains, Utah, 1.559 mm thick, colored by Mn³⁺. Data Files: a; c;

Natural Pink Beryl

GRR 2536b spectrum; Beryl, variety pale pink, Mt. Antero, Colorado, 8.186 mm thick. This is a pink portion of the pale blue crystal described above from Mt. Antero. In addition to an iron feature near 830 nm, it shows a manganese feature near 560 nm.
GRR 508 spectrum; Beryl, variety morganite, Brazil. 10.788 mm thick.

Pezzottaite (Pink)

GRR 2107 spectrum; Pezzottaite. A red, cesium-rich mineral related to beryl from Fianarantsoa province, Madagascar. 0.804 mm thick. The color is due to Mn³⁺. Data Files: a; c;

Synthetic Pink Beryl

MT Mn_4 spectrum; Pink beryl containing manganese, plotted as 10.0 mm thick. Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.
MT A 724 spectrum; Pink beryl containing cobalt, plotted as 10.0 mm thick. Contributed data from Michail Taran, Kyiv, Ukraine.

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

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revised 3-Jul-2022