Vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopic properties of rare earth ( RE = Ce , Tb , Eu , Tm , Sm ) -doped hexagonal K Ca Gd ( P O 4 ) 2 phosphateThe thermoluminescence activation energy and frequency factor of the main glow of Ca S O 4 : Tm phosphor determined by heating rate method including very slow rates of heating Multitrapping levels feature of thermoluminescent ͑TL͒ phosphors of CaSO 4 :RE ͑RE= Dy, Tb, and Sm͒ were analyzed using a variable heating rate method ͑including extremely slow heating rates of 0.001°C s −1 ͒, the postannealing method, and the analysis of TL decay curves using x-ray induced luminescence ͑XIL͒ spectroscopy after x-ray excitation was cut off at temperatures between 100 and 240°C. All the data confirmed the multilevel feature of the TL levels. The ranges of activation energies E of these components in the main glow were determined to be ͑a͒ 1.64-2.03 eV for CaSO 4 : Dy, ͑b͒ 1.66-2.01 eV for CaSO 4 : Tb, and ͑c͒ 1.66-2.00 eV for CaSO 4 : Sm. The frequency factor s was determined to be 10 19 s −1 for all components of the phosphors. The previously reported TL properties of the CaSO 4 : Tm phosphor were reinvestigated using the XIL decay analysis. Assuming that the most populated level is located at the center of the main glow, the four phosphors have similar E values of ϳ1.8 eV. The present results imply that the multicomponent TL properties of rare-earth-doped CaSO 4 phosphors are characterized by a lattice of CaSO 4 involving defects introduced around RE 3+ ions, and the glow curve properties are essentially not dependent on the rare-earth species introduced.