Characteristics of quartz infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) at elevated temperatures

This paper presents the study of infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) at elevated temperatures from an annealed quartz sample. Trap parameters of the IRSL signals were measured using pulse-annealing experiments with different heating rates and compared with the equivalent results for the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) obtained using blue light emitting diodes as the stimulation source. The results demonstrate that the IRSL signal comprises of only one component which is associated with the rapidly bleachable OSL traps; the OSL of this annealed quartz contains several components with different bleaching rates and different thermal stabilities. The lifetimes of the IRSL and OSL signals were estimated. A protocol for quartz dating using IRSL signals is proposed and is tested by recovery of given doses. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.