Study of real heating profiles in routine TLD readout: influences of temperature lags and non-linearities in the heating profiles on the glow curve shape

This paper reports on the results of a heating profile analysis using a commercial routine read-out system with non-contact hot nitrogen heating, using linear heating gas profiles. Glow curves of TLD-100 were analysed for different linear heating gas rates from 1°C.s-1 to 30°C.s-1. The analysis of the individual peak maxima (Peak 2-5) leads to an approximation of the real heating profile in the TL detector. It was found that the real heating profile deviates strongly from linearity, and that the temperature lag between the heating gas and the detector reaches values up to some tens of °C. The consequences of this non-linearity, with respect to the resulting glow curves, are discussed in this paper. These results lead to a better understanding of the shape of routine TL glow curves and help to improve the use of glow curves analysis in routine services. In addition, a simple procedure is described which allows calculation of the real heating profile based on the heating gas temperature profile. This model shows a very good match between experimental data and calculated values.