Photostimulated Glow Curve Method of Isolating Thermoluminescence Peaks

The photostimulated glow curve method in which the glow curve is recorded after high temperature irradiation followed by room temperature F-illumination is shown to be a simple and unique method to obtain pure thermoluminescence (TL) peaks. A pure TL peak enables not only a more accurate determination of the thermal activation energy (E) but also to establish the order of kinetics through the geometric or shape factor (μg). For such peaks, since all the parameters τ, Δ, and Ω can be determined unambiguously, Chen's formulas for general order kinetics can be used to give consistent values for E and μg; the consistency of the latter offers a test for the purity of the peaks as well, a phenomenon usually rare in TL experiments. The effect of F-illumination on the behaviour of electron traps formed in X-irradiated KCl crystals is also discussed.