MODELS FOR OPTICAL BLEACHING OF THERMOLUMINESCENCE IN SEDIMENTS

In this paper, we examine several models for the description of TL, focusing most attention on the properties of optical bleaching, in an effort to determine if realistic models can be devised which accurately describe the observed behavior. The models considered include multiple trapping and recombination levels, radiative and non-radiative processes, trap interaction effects, retrapping of released charge, and include transitions into and out of the recombination centers as well as the traps. All such phenomena are likely to occur in real materials and should be included in any model which purports to describe such materials. This paper concludes that models which account for the recombination of freed electrons with trapped holes during the bleaching period appear to be the most successful at describing the observed phenomena.