The effect of preheating on the IRSL signal from feldspar

It is difficult to relate the IRSL signal from feldspar to a particular region of the TL curve; prior IR stimulation reduces the TL signal over a wide range of temperatures. Such data are apparently consistent with the observation from pulse anneal experiments that a laboratory-induced IRSL signal is detectably eroded by a relatively low temperature preheat.

These results can be explained by a distribution of trap depths of IR sensitive traps, and/or by changes in recombination probability induced by IR exposure. To investigate the relative importance of these processes, we first examine the relationship between the loss of blue IRSL and TL signals with preheating, and the effect of prior IRSL on the TL signal.

Using IRSL measured at 50 °C and a SAR protocol, we then examine the dependence on preheat temperature of equivalent dose (De), laboratory fading rate (g), and the resulting luminescence age, from three sedimentary potassium-rich feldspar extracts. We demonstrate that there is no systematic increase in De for a preheat temperature range from 80 °C to 320 °C (60 s duration).

After fading correction, age plateaus vary slightly over the temperature range examined, but there is no evidence for an increase in age with preheat temperature. We therefore conclude that the main dosimetry trap(s) in feldspar are not significantly eroded by laboratory heating for up to 60 s at 320 °C, and we tentatively identify the source of this IRSL as a TL peak lying between 410 and 420 °C; this suggestion is consistent with a kinetic analysis of sensitivity-corrected IRSL data.

The corollary to our observations is that shallow (unstable) traps do not give rise to a significant IRSL signal.