An Overview of Red-Thermoluminescence (RTL) Studies on Heated Quartz and RTL Application to Dosimetry and Dating

The RTL-phenomena in quartz grains were initially reported and their properties and applications were developed by our group. Although RTL-measurements had the difficulty of overcoming high background counts due to blackbody radiation, the excellent dose linearity and hard-to-bleaching nature of quartz RTL are suitable for accurate retrospective dosimetry and dating of burnt archaeological materials. In his paper, the discovery of RTL-phenomena is described. Subsequently, the construction and features of an automatic luminescence measuring system are mentioned together with innovative methods of decreasing the background level for the RTL measurement. Practical applications to dosimetry and dating are then described from the viewpoints of the preferable nature of RTL in comparison to other luminescence observations. Finally, some recent advances in RTL research are presented based on their emission mechanism correlated with impurity contents.