Developments in radiation, stimulation and observation facilities in luminescence measurements

This paper summarises recent developments in the Riscircle divide TL/OSL reader. These new developments include an elevated temperature irradiation facility that has been expanded to measure variable temperature radioluminescence (RL) during beta irradiation. This RL facility allows the measurement of TL, OSL and RL in the same software-controlled automatic sequence.

To provide an alternative to the Sr-90 beta source, the performance of a software-controlled mini X-ray generator has been investigated. This has the advantage of providing a range of dose rates spanning more than three orders of magnitude up to more than 2 Gy/s. A separate bleaching facility has also been added to the reader, new powerful infrared (IR) light-emitting diodes have replaced the IR laser diode in the general OSL unit, and an IR laser has been included in the single-grain OSL attachment.

This paper describes these new facilities, and illustrates their applications with representative measurements. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.