Resolving the limitation of the peak fitting and peak shape methods in the determination of the activation energy of thermoluminescence glow peaks

An overview of the successes and failure of the computerized glow curve deconvolution (CGCD) and the peak shape methods in describing the glow peaks generated from the fundamental one trap-one recombination center (OTOR) model was discussed. Also, the existing method, and a new developed one, to test the applicability of the existing thermoluminescence (TL) expressions to describe the glow peaks were discussed. The new TL expressions deduced by Kitis and Vlachos ([17] G. Kitis, N.D. Vlachos, Radiat. Meas. 48 (2013) 47–54) were tested in the cases in which the other existing TL expressions failed. The results showed that the error in the calculated activation energy (E) using the existing expressions may reach up, in some cases, to 50%. While, using the new TL expressions, the error in the calculated E did not exceed 0.5%. -- Highlights: • The successes and failure of the CGCD and peak shape methods were discussed. • The deduced TL expressions based on the Lambert W function were tested. • A comparison between the existing and the new deduced TL expressions was made. • The error of E calculated using the existing expressions may reach up to 50%. • The error of E calculated using the new deduced expression did not exceed 0.5%