Red thermoluminescence (RTL) sensitivity change in quartz

This study investigated changes in the thermoluminescence sensitivity of volcanic and plutonic quartz following irradiation and annealing treatments with the aim of improving the accuracy of red thermoluminescence (RTL) dating. The response to X-ray irradiation (49 Gy) and RTL readout to 450 °C at a rate of 1 °C s−1 was repeated 12 times and the sensitivity change induced by doses ranging from 49 to 293 Gy was examined. The results of these two experiments revealed that the final enhanced ratio of the sensitivity of plutonic quartz is 2.1–2.8 and 2.2–2.3 for two types of analyzed samples, much greater than that of volcanic quartz. To examine the thermal stability of quartz, several annealing treatments were performed from 300 to 900 °C for 100 min. An annealing treatment of 500 °C for 100 min resulted in a strong enhancement of RTL emission intensity for plutonic quartz, approaching the level for volcanic quartz. Finally, the single aliquot regeneration (SAR) method was applied to evaluate the absorbed dose, De, for aliquots irradiated with a known-dose ranging from 195 to 1952 Gy. All SAR De values obtained with volcanic quartz were in good agreement with the known dose values; whereas for plutonic quartz large uncertainties in De were obtained due to a marked sensitivity change. The magnitude of the RTL sensitivity change of quartz depends on dose and annealing treatment, and is clearly dependent on a classification of quartz based on thermal history.