I. Phenomenological Theory of Thermoluminescence

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Abstract
Thermoluminescence (TL) glow curves are investigated in detail for a single trap depth in the presence of thermally disconnected traps and a single type of recombination center. The different shapes of TL curves are discussed as they relate to the ratio of trapping probability to recombination probability, and to the densities of recombination centers and thermally disconnected traps. The influence of such equipment parameters as heating rate, initial occupancy of the traps, and initial temperature is also examined. As a result of our calculations, we conclude that TL by itself is not a suitable tool for determining trapping parameters of imperfections in crystals, that the simple experiments performed to date have not yielded unique values of the trapping parameters, and that even a sophisticated experiment is highly unlikely to yield unique values.