A Study toward the Model Independence of Various Heating Rates Method in Thermoluminescence Glow Curve Analysis

Abstract

This study analyzes thermoluminescence (TL) glow curves simulated in general order kinetics (GOK), one trap one recombination center (OTOR), and non‐interactive multi‐trap system (NMTS) models using various heating rates (VHR) method in linear heating scheme to extract the activation energy. A theoretical analysis to determine activation energy from TL curves using OTOR and NMTS models in an iterative manner, where the TL intensity is determined by using the Lambert‐W function, is proposed with its limitations. It is established that the activation energies in OTOR and NMTS models consist of the relevant GOK term and a respective correction term. Systematic analysis is carried out to study the improvement of the accuracy of activation energy derived from OTOR and NMTS model TL curves over the GOK model calculation. A quantitative analysis of the quasi‐equilibrium (QE) approximations is carried out for choosing appropriate system parameters. The validity of QE conditions are determined by studying variations of full width at half maximum as well as area under the curve as a function of heating rate. The present method is applied on some experimental data to estimate activation energies. This investigation reveals that the activation energy derived in VHR method has negligible dependence on the underlying theoretical models, i.e., the activation energy derived from GOK model calculation is significantly accurate for experimental scenario.