Thermoluminescence Studies of Alkali Azides

Although thermoluminescence studies by themselves do not contribute to the assignment of models for defects, such measurements can, when correlated to other kinds of data, yield more information about the nature of defects. Activation energies for the thermal release of trapped charge and the sign of the charge can often be determined. 

Estimates of the relative positions of the trapping levels in the band gap can also be obtained. Typically the thermoluminescence experiment involves warming a low-temperature irradiated crystal at some well-characterized rate and ob- 

Thermoluminescence measurements were also made on X-ray and 7-ray irradiated KN3 from 47 to 255°K, yielding activation energies and pre-exponential factors [74,75]. Because the heating rates are different from those used for the UV-irradiated KN3, it is difficult to relate the two sets of data. Since thermoluminescence is sensitive to impurity content, there are also problems in relating studies on crystals grown in different laboratories. However, Townsend et al. [74,75] determined pre-exponential factors which have also been obtained from kinetic studies of the decay of ESR and optical spectra, enabling a comparison with determinations from annealing studies of ESR and optical bonds. In X-ray 

The thermoluminescence studies of irradiated azides have not added greatly to understanding the defects. Considerably more work must be done before thermoluminescence data and annealing data from other methods can be compared. 

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