Peak shape methods for general order thermoluminescence glow-peaks: A reappraisal

This paper presents a reappraisal of the well known peak shape expressions for calculating the activation energy E in a thermoluminescence (TL) glow-peak. This study leads to new insights as to the meaning of the coefficients used in the original equations. The reappraisal leads to new equations for the coefficients of the peak shape expressions which contain the general order parameter b, instead of the experimentally determined geometrical shape factor which is used in the original equations. Previously only the coefficients for first and second order kinetics were determined on the basis of existing theory and the coefficients for intermediate kinetics order were determined empirically using a linear interpolation–extrapolation method. In the present work the improved peak shape coefficients are evaluated in analytical form as a function of the kinetic order b, by using the general order kinetics expression for the TL intensity. The intrinsic errors in the newly derived expressions for E are evaluated and their relevance to experimental work is discussed in detail. A method for a further improvement of the accuracy of the peak shape methods is suggested.