Thermoluminescence in polyethylene: II. Dose kinetics

The dose dependence of thermoluminescence output from low- and high-density polyethylene is reported. Using a simple electron-ion recombination model of thermoluminescence it is shown that dose kinetics measure the rate of trapping of electrons and quantitative expres­sions are derived for a number of simple trapping conditions. Using earlier identifications of the electron traps in polyethylene the experimental observations are shown to be in agreement with the theoretical equations. It is also shown that, at low doses, the characteristic glow curve of polyethylene is supplemented by an emission probably arising from some form of electron-radical interaction.