An F-center or color center or Farbe center (from the original German Farbzentrum, where Farbe means color and zentrum means center) is a type of crystallographic defect in which an anionic vacancy in a crystal lattice is occupied by one or more unpaired electrons. Electrons in such a vacancy in a crystal lattice tend to absorb light in the visible spectrum such that a material that is usually transparent becomes colored. The greater the number of F centers, the more intense the color of the compound. F centers are a type of color center.
This is used to identify many compounds, especially zinc oxide (yellow).