Investigating the characteristics of yellow stimulated luminescence from potassium feldspar

Abstract

We investigate the characteristics of low-temperature yellow stimulated luminescence (YSL), to assess its utility for dating with infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) stimulated at 50 °C (IR₅₀), post-IR₅₀ yellow stimulated luminescence (pIR-YSL) and pIRIR₂₉₀. Altogether, eleven samples from a range of depositional environments and with a wide range of known ages were tested. Bleaching tests show that the pIR-YSL signal bleaches at a rate and extent that is similar to the IR₅₀ signal. Dose recovery tests on four of the young intermediate samples illustrate that the pIR-YSL signal can be both recovered and fully reset. Equivalent dose estimations of the modern samples indicate that the YSL₅₀ signal more consistently returns a result close to 0 Gy than the IR₅₀ signal in fluvial samples. The saturated samples show that the IR₅₀, IR-YSL and YSL₅₀ signals significantly underestimate relative to the pIRIR₂₉₀ signal and independent age control. Fading tests show that all three signals suffer from significant fading, with the largest fading effect on the YSL₅₀ signal, whereas the IR₅₀ and pIR YSL signals have similar fading rates. We note however, that the D_e values of the YSL₅₀ signal for the young intermediate samples are largely in agreement with independent age control, while the IR₅₀ signal underestimates and the pIRIR₂₉₀ results overestimate. We propose that low temperature YSL has the potential to be suitable for dating samples spanning from the last glacial maximum to the Holocene.