Common mistakes in luminescence analysis

Luminescence techniques are powerful and sensitive probes to study imperfections, impurities and modifications of insulating materials. They are used in a wide range of disciplines from condensed matter physics to archaeology and mineralogy and the methods have developed over nearly a century. Early equipment was often not quantitative and data were collected in formats that were difficult to process and manipulate, and so signals were frequently presented in terms of the initial signals without corrections for equipment spectral sensitivity. Unfortunately not only did this distort the information but often it resulted in incorrect interpretations. Further, the incorrect data handling has persisted into modern usage both by physicists and those in other fields who merely use luminescence as a sensitive technique. Several main types of problem are considered. These include temperature errors in thermoluminescence dosimetry; subtleties in the signal intensity corrections for the responses of both the spectrometer and detectors; grating polarization effects; sample anisotropy; and common errors in spectral deconvolution, especially failure to transform from wavelength to energy plots.