A preliminary study of time-resolved luminescence in some feldspars

A new time-resolved optically stimulated luminescence system has been assembled. It has a stimulation range from 400 nm to > 2 mu m and has a temporal resolution of 5 ns thus permitting measurements of lifetimes down to the order of tens of nanoseconds. Measurements with a set of six feldspars (orthoclase, albite, sanidine and oligoclase) have been made using 850 nm stimulation during which recombination luminescence is observed. Strong similarities, but also marked differences, were found between the samples. Lifetimes range from a few tens of nanoseconds to tens of us. Measurements of these samples have also been made in three different detection regions from 300 to 600 nm, appearing to reveal associations between some of the emission bands and particular lifetimes. Investigations of the dependence upon sample temperature have also been performed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.