On isothermal heating as a method of separating closely collocated thermoluminescence peaks for kinetic analysis

The experimental separation of overlapping peaks is a common practical concern in thermoluminescence experiments. In this regard, we have investigated the use of isothermal heating as a method for separating closely collocated peaks for kinetic analysis. The method has been developed and applied on a sample of synthetic quartz in which the thermoluminescence intensity is not reproducible in successive measurements on the same aliquot. Preparatory experiments performed to establish a suitable combination of temperature and heating time are described in detail. A comparative analysis of results from conventional thermal cleaning with those from isothermal cleaning, done as a means to assess the effectiveness of the latter, has shown isothermal heating to be a reliable method of separating closely collocated glow-peaks. The method is conveniently applied in combination with a new technique for kinetic analysis based on the use of the temperature-dependence of the area under an isothermal decay-curve. Isothermal heating was also applied to separate collocated peaks in europium-doped orthosilicate (Sr2SiO4:Eu2+), a luminophor, and in carbon-doped aluminium oxide (α-Al2O3:C), a dosemeter. The set studied in Sr2SiO4:Eu2+, unlike in the quartz, consists of peaks where the intensity of the lower-temperature one is greater than subsequent ones at higher temperature. On the other hand, the example investigated in α-Al2O3:C is similar except that the dominant peak subsumes the lower intensity secondary peak to the extent that they appear as one.