Using optically stimulated electrons from quartz for the estimation of natural doses

A flow-through Geiger-Müller pancake electron detector attachment has been fitted to a standard Risø TL/OSL reader enabling optically stimulated electrons (OSE) to be measured simultaneously with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Using this detector, OSE and OSL measurements from natural quartz samples are studied to examine the possible use of OSE as a chronometer. First the relative variability in OSE and OSL growth curve shapes and the effect of preheat on these are presented, and from these curves, conclusions are drawn concerning the charge movement in natural quartz. Secondly, a dose recovery test shows that OSE can successfully recover a laboratory dose of 300 Gy given before any laboratory thermal treatment, for preheating temperatures between 160 and 260 °C. Furthermore, for the first time natural OSE decay curves are detected and these signals are used to estimate a burial dose using the single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) procedure. Finally, a comparative study of the equivalent doses estimated using both OSE and OSL from 10 quartz samples are presented, and it is shown that OSE has a significant potential in retrospective dosimetry.