THE MECHANISM OF THERMOLUMINESCENCE IN AN AUSTRALIAN SEDIMENTARY QUARTZ

The thermoluminescence and related properties of a specific Australian quartz are considered, using both original experiments and data from the literature on comparable systems. It is concluded that the rapidly-bleaching peak at about 305 degrees C in the glow curve and the peaks at 220, 180 and 100 degrees C, which all emit at wavelengths below about 430 nm in this quartz, form a ''family'', the electron traps of which all feed the same luminescence centre using the conduction band for electron transport. The slowly-bleaching peak at about 350 degrees C and smaller peaks at 260 degrees C and above about 450 degrees C, emitting at about 470 nm, are outside this system. These peak temperatures are for unirradiated (''natural'') material measured at a ramp rate of 3.1 K/s. While the paper deals in detail with only one specific quartz sample, the properties described have been seen in several others. Whether the conclusions apply more generally remains to be seen.