A single-aliquot OSL protocol using bracketing regenerative doses to accurately determine equivalent doses in quartz

In most cases, sediments show inherent heterogeneity in their luminescence behaviours and bleaching histories, and identical aliquots are not available: single-aliquot determination of the equivalent dose (ED) is then the approach of choice and the advantages of using regenerative protocols are outlined. Experiments on five laboratory bleached and dosed quartz samples, following the protocol described by Murray and Roberts (1998. Measurement of the equivalent dose in quartz using a regenerative-dose single aliquot protocol. Radiation Measurements 27, 171-184), showed the hazards of using a single regeneration dose: a 10% variation in the regenerative dose yielded some equivalent dose estimates that differed from the expected value by more than 5%. A protocol is proposed that allows the use of different regenerative doses to bracket the estimated equivalent dose. The measured ED is found to be in excellent agreement with the known value when the main regeneration dose is within 10% of the true equivalent dose. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.