释光测年实验室的建立与沉积物释光测年技术研究

The main research projects reported in this paper are the establishment of a luminescence (OSL/TL) dating laboratory in The Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS, and studies on OSL dating technique and protocol of sediments from North China. These projects have been suggested in order to fit in with the needs of research developments in environmental changes, in particular the aridity and desertification in North China. A new luminescence dating laboratory in which there are a Rise TL/OSL-DA-15B/C reader with Sr-90 beta source, a set of Little More Tape 9022 alpha and beta irradiators, three set of Daybreak 583 intelligent alpha counters and sample preparation system has been set up in the Institute in June 2001. The courses of the establishment of a new laboratory involved a series of technical works, besides making a suitable choice of the equipment, as follows: installing and testing TL/OSL reader, calibrating the dose rate of the beta and alpha sources in the irradiators with the standard sources, testing and calibrating the count rates of the thick source alpha counting in the alpha counters with a standard sample, and then dating of the know age samples to check and examine the OSL/TL dating system. All data obtained from above calibrations and tests show that the established OSL/TL system, including the used equipment in it, can be used to determine age of the geological and archaeological samples with an error of equivalent dose (De) of less than 5%. The OSL dates of several sediment samples obtained from the system are good agreement with those from the OSL dating laboratory in Hong Kong University and ~(14)C dates within 1 - 2 standard deviations. The studies on OSL dating technique and protocol of sediment samples being in progress involve the De determinations with single aliquot regeneration (SAR) (Murray and Wintle, 2000) of the coarse grain quartz from sand dune samples and comparison of the De determinations obtained from SAR with those measured by using multiple aliquot regeneration of loess fine grains. The preliminary results from these research works are shown as follows. The very low natural equivalent dose (De) of about 0.012 - 0.03 Gy, corresponding age of less than 10 years, for BLSL (blue light stimulated luminescence) of the coarse grain quartz from modern sand dune samples in Horqin sand fields has been determined with both the SAR and multiple aliquot regeneration (MAR) techniques. This imply that the BLSL signal zeroing of the quartz could be reached before burying of the sand in Horqin sand fields. The De values and ages of the coarse grain quartz measured with SAR protocol are in good agreement with those obtained from multiple aliquot technique for the modern sand dune samples, but the errors of De from the MAR is greater than those from the SAR. This may imply that the higher precision of age determination for younger sand dune samples could be achieved with the SAR of coarse grain quartz. The MAR combining with "Australian Slide method" may be a perfect choice for De measurements of loess fine grain samples on the basis of analysis of De values obtained from the SAR and from the MAR. The former can be employed to obtain a reliable age estimate of loess sample as older as approximately SO ka BR There is a great difference between De determinations from the (post-IR) OSL of the SAR (Roberts and Wintle, 2001) and those from independent or expected estimates for the older samples. However, the age estimates obtained from the (post-IR) OSL of the SAR are mostly closed to the independent age determinations for the younger (age less than 10 ka) fine grain samples. It may be suggested that the (post-IR) OSL of the SAR protocol of the fine grain fraction would be a suitable choice to dating of the younger samples, but may be unsuitable for the older samples.