Phototransferred thermoluminescence in α-Al2O3: C, Mg under 470 nm blue light stimulation

Phototransferred thermoluminescence (PTTL) in α-Al2O3:C,Mg under 470 nm blue light has been investigated. Conventional thermoluminescence (TL) measured at 1 °C/s following irradiation to 10 Gy shows the main peak (labelled as III) at 163 °C and six secondary peaks I, II, IV, V, VI and VII at 45, 74, 200, 279, 328, 370 °C respectively. When a sample irradiated to 10 Gy is preheated to 220 °C at 1 °C/s to remove peaks I, II, III and IV and then exposed to 470 nm blue light for 100 s, it is found that three peaks I, II and III are reproduced under phototransfer. Kinetic analysis of the PTTL peaks shows that their kinetic parameters are similar to those of peaks I, II and III from conventional TL. Pulse annealing experiments, intended to study the dependence of PTTL peak intensity on preheating temperature, show that the electron traps corresponding to peaks V, VI and VII act as donor traps whereas the traps corresponding to peaks I, II and III act as acceptor traps. Further, it was found that no PTTL can be generated when all the traps corresponding to peaks I, II…VII are erased by preheating after irradiation. The primary conclusion here is that α-Al2O3:C,Mg does not have any deep traps beyond 400 °C sensitive to 470 nm stimulation or if there are any, their concentration is negligible. The PTTL for any of the PTTL peaks mentioned earlier increases with illumination time to a maximum within 400 s for measurements corresponding to doses between 6 and 15 Gy. The dose response of PTTL peaks II and III is linear within 1–15 Gy. Regarding fading, PTTL peak II fades to background level within 18000 s whereas in the same time, PTTL peak III fades down to 40% of its initial intensity