The thermoluminescent (TL) glow in ZrO2film irradiated with ultraviolet radiation has been studied. The ZrO2films of thickness from 0.2 to 0.05 mm were made by mixing the ground sintered ZrO2powder with a binder in solvent then dried on a leveling flat glass plate. The sintering temperature of 1,100°C has been chosen for the demonstration of the TL results of ZrO2, pellet and film, and their crystalline structures have been investigated by the x-ray diffractometer. The TL glow curves of the ZrO2film and pellet irradiated by UV of wavelength 302 nm and exposure of 10 mJ cm−2were obtained. The results show that the TL peak positions of the ZrO2pellet shifted about 10°C from those of the film. The explanation of these differences is that for the thick sample, there is a temperature lag due to the heat conduction through the bulk of the sample during the TL readout. For the film sample, this temperature lag is negligible, so the TL glow is essentially read out simultaneously from all part of the film without the heat conduction problem. This ZrO2film can be used to calibrate the temperature peak position of the TL read out for a thick sample.