Optical dating in a new light: A direct, non-destructive probe of trapped electrons.

ABSTRACT: Optical dating has revolutionized our understanding of Global climate change, Earth surface processes, and human evolution and dispersal over the last ~500 ka. Optical dating is based on an anti-Stokes photon emission generated by electron-hole recombination within quartz or feldspar; it relies, by default, on destructive read-out of the stored chronometric information. We present here a fundamentally new method of optical read-out of the trapped electron population in feldspar. The new signal termed as Infra-Red Photo-Luminescence (IRPL) is a Stokes emission (~1.30 eV) derived from NIR excitation (~1.40 eV) on samples previously exposed to ionizing radiation. Low temperature (7-295 K) spectroscopic and time-resolved investigations suggest that IRPL is generated from excited-to-ground stat

SUBMITTER: Prasad AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5615069 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature