Measurement of optically and thermally stimulated electron emission from natural minerals

Electron emission during thermal stimulation has been studied before in some detail, but there has been less work on the optically stimulated signal, especially in natural dosimeters. We report on measurements obtained using a windowless pancake Geiger–Müller electron detector attachment to a Risø TL/OSL reader, enabling optically stimulated electrons (OSE) and thermally stimulated electrons (TSE) to be measured simultaneously with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and thermoluminescence (TL). Repeated irradiation and measurement is possible without removing the sample from the counting chamber. Using this equipment both OSE and TSE from loose sand-sized grains of natural minerals has been recorded. It is shown that both the surface electron traps (giving rise to the OSE signals) and the bulk traps (giving rise to OSL) have the same dosimetric properties. A comparison of OSL and OSE is used to give insight into the relative importance of electron traps and recombination centres in various luminescence phenomena.