Influence of pre-measurement thermal treatment on OSL of synthetic quartz measured at room temperature

Much effort has been made to study the influence of pre-measurement thermal treatment and ionizing radiation on quartz specimens owing to its use in a large number of applications. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) being a structured and sensitive phenomenon promises to correlate the responsible color center and luminescence emission. OSL studies on quartz with such conditions can reveal many significant results. The aim of the present investigation is to understand the effect of annealing temperature on OSL characteristics of synthetic quartz recorded at room temperature. At identical annealing duration and P-dose, the shape of OSL decay curve remains non-exponential; when specimens annealed at lower temperature (similar to 400 degrees C). The shape of decay curve changes to exponential in nature along with rise in OSL intensity when the specimen was given higher temperature of annealing (>400 degrees C). The effects of such protocol on pattern of OSL sensitivity as well as area under the OSL decay curve are also presented here. The presence of shallow traps, when OSL decay curve was recorded at room temperature seems to be responsible for the changes in OSL pattern. The influence of shallow traps is attributed to non-exponential decay of OSL recorded at room temperature. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.