The origin of the medium OSL component in West Australian quartz

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) of a coarse-grained sedimentary quartz from West Australia was investigated. Observations of OSL and TL (thermoluminescence) were made following a series of experiments using different heating and optical bleaching conditions, and with optical stimulation at several different temperatures. Analysis of the fast and medium OSL components suggests that the medium OSL component observed after heating at 260 °C is a by-product of the production of the fast component, and both of them have as their original source the 325 °C TL trap. During fast OSL production following irradiation and preheating, some of the electrons evicted into the conduction band are re-trapped in an intermediate trap corresponding to the 170 °C TL peak; from here they are instantaneously stimulated to give rise to the medium OSL signal when the blue light stimulation is switched on, and subsequently result in the residual recuperated TL after the blue light is switched off. The kinetic properties of the medium OSL component are determined by the properties of both the 170 °C and 325 °C TL traps in contrast to the conventional interpretation of the medium component being derived from an independent source trap. Therefore, the 170 °C TL trap also plays unexpected roles in quartz OSL production with elevated stimulation temperatures (e.g. 125 °C or 130 °C, currently used for OSL dating), while the 110 °C TL trap and its influences are being avoided.