Luminescence Dating Laboratory
At Luminescence Dating Laboratory, dosimetry and absolute dating by luminescence are available to the archaeological/geomorphological/geological/art-historical studies. This method evaluates the time since crystalline minerals were exposed to light or heat for the last time. Luminescence dating is based on a combination of retrospective dosimetry and environmental dosimetry. The normal age range for dating is between 50 years and 200 thousand years, depending on the dosimetric properties of the signal and material being analysed, and the radioactivity of its environment. The materials analysed for dating are inorganic and are highly resistant to alteration during their burial. Luminescence dating is therefore optimized for studies of the chronologies of human development and environmental records during the Holocene and late Quaternary. In addition to dating per se, the Luminescence Dating Laboratory has interests in the development of new methodologies and applications related with dating; retrospective dosimetry; environmental dosimetry and radiogeochemistry; and investigation of the origins and physical processes of luminescence in minerals.
- Stainless steel and plastic tubes for sampling sediments
- Diamond saw, hollow diamond drills and tungsten drills, water cooled, for subsampling pieces and stones
- Hydraulic press for disaggregation
- Range of calibrated sieves
- Centrifuge (4x500ml or 8x50ml), temperature controlled
- HF hotte, ventilated with filtering of gasses
- Stainless steel and aluminium disks, 1 cm diameter and for single grains, for presentation of prepared fractions for luminescence measurement
- Ovens for thermal treatments to 1200°C
- High precision balance
- Binocular microscope
- Magnetic separator
- Three TL/OSL Risø DA-20 automatic readers with Beta irradiator – 90Sr/90Y, and photomultiplier for detection between 160 and 630 nm, with LEDs (c. 470 nm, c. 875 nm); one of them ables for single grains measured by OSL stimulated by laser/laser diode (532 nm, 830 nm)
- Daybreak Beta irradiator – 90Sr/90Y
- Littlemore Alpha irradiator – 241Am, with vacuum system
- Range of glass filters for choice of detection band
- Osprey Universal Digital MCA Tube Base for Scintillation Spectrometry, with NaI probe, 2″x2″
- HPI Rainbow MCA with NaI probes, 1″x1″, 2″x2″ e 3″x3″.