Recent developments of thermoluminescence studies in alkali halide crystals: Photostimulated thermoluminescence

Part I describes the processes inherent to thermoluminescence phenomena and discusses the information yielded by thermoluminescence measurements on a real crystal. A brief review of the results in alkali halides is presented.

In the second part, the method of photostimulated thermoluminescence is presented with a summary of the typical results obtained by the authors: a sample is previously X-rayed at a high temperature; next trap filling is obtained by illumination with monochromatic light; the sample is then heated and the glow curve recorded. The process bears some analogy to photoconductivity, with higher sensitivity; moreover it allows the separation of the electron from the hole contribution and evidences different mechanisms of trap filling.

In the last part a recent development of the method is shown, namely the study of photostimulated thermoluminescence in additively colored alkali halide crystals.