A study of thermoluminescence emission spectra and optical stimulation spectra of quartz from different provenances

Abstract

The present study examines (1) variability in the thermoluminescence (TL) emission spectrum and optical stimulation (OSL) spectrum of quartz from different provenances and, (2) possible correlations between spectral features and the nature of the complex growth curves (ranging from saturating exponential to those described by a cubic polynomial function), so as to determine the validity of the currently used experimental protocols. The results suggest that commonly used UV emission for dating constitutes only a minor component of the total quartz emission and in view of this a dose-dependent contribution from blue/blue-green emission peak to the UV detection is likely. The OSL stimulation spectrum shows a definite change in stimulation response between 500-520 nm, hence implying that stimulation in this window may contribute as an additional source of scatter in multi-grain samples.