The work presents results of the thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) studies of nominally pure YAlO₃ (YAP) crystals as well as the crystals doped with various dopants (among them Ho³⁺, Tm³⁺, Mn).
Measuring of thermal glow curves in the 10-600 K temperature range after preliminary exposition with Ar⁺-laser light (351 nm) of Xe-lamp (UV part of spectrum) shows the presence of similar glow peaks in all the crystals studied. Namely, the glow peaks near T=175 K (E=0.48+/-0.06 eV, lns=27.8+/-4.1 s^-1), T=195 K (E=0.55+/-0.03 eV, lns=28.6+/-1.9 s^-1), T=205 K (E=0.68+/-0.03 eV, lns=34.5+/-1.8 s^-1), T=255 K (E=0.80+/-0.05 eV, lns=32.2+/-2.4 s^-1), T=360 K (E=1.35+/-0.05 eV, lns=39.1+/-1.7 s^-1) and T=400 K (E=1.7+/-0.1 eV, lns=44.9+/-3.0 s^-1) were observed. Besides, two (or maybe more) feebly pronounced glow peaks at T<100 K as well as the peak near T=320 K were observed in some crystals.
It was shown that the transient optical absorption of YAP crystals near 15000 cm^-1 described in [1] correlates by activation energy with the low-temperature thermal glow peak at 255 K.
TSL spectra of YAP:Mn crystals correspond to intra-center luminescence of Mn⁴⁺ ions. TSL spectra of nominally pure YAP and YAP:Ho crystals also correspond to Mn⁴⁺ ions, which are present in the crystals as uncontrolled impurity and obviously act as recombination centers. Whereas TSL spectra of YAP:Tm crystals in visible region correspond to intra-center luminescence of Tm³⁺ ions that testifies energy transfer processes between point defects and Tm³⁺ ions.
The effect of preliminary annealing (T>1000 K) in reducing or oxidizing atmosphere on the TSL properties of the crystals has been studied.
On the basis of the obtained results a nature of trap centers and mechanisms of recombination are discussed.
[1] A. Matkovski, A. Durygin, A. Suchocki, et al. Optical Mater. 12 (1999) 75.

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