Thermal quenching of thermoluminescence in natural quartz

The thermal quenching properties of the thermoluminescence (TL) from several natural quartz specimens were examined, at two different wavelengths, using the heating rate dependence of the TL signal. As the heating rate varies the TL peaks shift to different temperatures and become affected by thermal quenching to different extents. In this work the heating rate was varied over several orders of magnitude and, through deconvolution of the TL glow curve the behaviour of the main TL peaks was followed as a function of the temperature at which the peak appeared in the glow curve. Through an analysis of the glow peak areas as a function of glow peak temperature the decrease in the efficiency of TL production with increasing temperature could be monitored, at the different emission wavelengths. The analysis supports the contention that the quenching phenomenon is a result of a Mott-Seitz mechanism. (author)