Testing a single-aliquot protocol for recuperated OSL dating

A single-aliquot dating procedure for measuring the equivalent dose in fine-grained quartz extracted from Chinese loess has been developed and tested. The optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) signal used for construction of the dose–response curve is termed the recuperated OSL (ReOSL) signal; it is the difference between the thermally transferred OSL signal measured after heating to 260∘C for 10 s following optical stimulation with blue light for 270 s at 125∘C and the subsequent basic-transferred OSL signal measured when the same procedures are preceded by heating at 300∘C for 10 s. Dose recovery experiments are reported, and the apparent impact of the size of test dose used to monitor sensitivity change is investigated. Equivalent doses obtained using the protocol developed from these experiments are compared with those obtained with multiple aliquots, using both conventional OSL and the ReOSL signals.