Mathematical aspects of ground state tunneling models in luminescence materials

Luminescence signals from a variety of natural materials have been known to decrease with storage time at room temperature due to quantum tunneling, a phenomenon known as anomalous fading. This paper is a study of several mathematical aspects of two previously published luminescence models which describe tunneling phenomena from the ground state of a donor-acceptor system. It is shown that both models are described by the same type of integral equation, and two new analytical equations are presented. The first new analytical equation describes the effect of anomalous fading on the dose response curves (DRCs) of naturally irradiated samples. The DRCs in the model were previously expressed in the form of integral equations requiring numerical integration, while the new analytical equation can be used immediately as a tool for analyzing experimental data. The second analytical equation presented in this paper describes the anomalous fading rate (g-Value per decade) as a function of the charge density in the model. This new analytical expression for the g-Value is tested using experimental anomalous fading data for several apatite crystals which exhibit high rate of anomalous fading. The two new analytical results can be useful tools for analyzing anomalous fading data from luminescence materials. In addition to the two new analytical equations, an explanation is provided for the numerical value of a constant previously introduced in the models. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.