Anomalous Fading of Ir-Stimulated Luminescence from Feldspar Minerals: Some Results of the Study

An increasing amount of evidence shows that the use of feldspars in luminescence dating may suffer from significant age underestimates, which are thought to result from anomalous fading. In the hope of finding a solution to the problem we undertook physical investigations of kinetics and temperature dependencies of tunnel afterglow of these minerals. As a result, the method of the direct detection of the tunnel transitions from the dosimetric traps is proposed. Some other relevant results obtained are also presented and discussed. Particularly, the probable reasons of absence of effects of anomalous fading in the feldspar samples investigated in the present work are elucidated.