Simulation of the influence of thermal quenching on thermoluminescence glow-peaks

The thermal quenching of luminescence efficiency is an effect which is present in many thermoluminescent (TL) materials. It causes a significant decrease of the luminescence signal and disturbs the shape of the glow-peaks. Therefore, in principle, the thermoluminescence kinetics theory cannot describe TL glow-peaks influenced by thermal quenching. In the present work a detailed simulation of the influence of the thermal quenching effect on thermoluminescence glow-peaks is presented. Specifically we study the shift of the quenched glow-peak with heating rate and the effect on the various heating rate methods, the influence on the symmetry factor and the kinetic order of the glow-peak, and the effect of thermal quenching on the initial rise and peak shape methods for evaluating kinetic parameters. Furthermore, the evaluation of the thermal quenching parameters using the quenched glow-peak and the possibility of using the conventional expression describing a single glow-peak to fit the quenched glow peaks are also investigated. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim