Short Description
OSL dating allows the age of sedimentary deposits to be accurately constrained and has revolutionized studies of events that occurred in the past ca. 300 000 years of Earth´s and humanity´s history. OSL dating is based on the principle that mineral grains, such as quartz and feldspar, absorb energy that originates from naturally occurring ionizing radiation in the sedimentary environment. The radiative energy is stored in the crystal lattices of these minerals in the form of trapped electrons and the number of trapped electrons increases over time. Optical read out of these electrons under controlled laboratory conditions thus provides a tool to constrain the depositional age of sediment.
The TL/OSL Dating system Model TL/OSL-DA-20 (manufactured by Riso DTU Denmark) is an automated luminescence reader equipped with a photomultiplier tube for luminescence detection; blue and infrared LEDs as well as a laser attachment for for stimulation of multi-grain and single-grain aliquots. It a allows dating of sedimentary quartz and feldspar extracts.
Contact Person
assoz. Prof. Dr. Michael Meyer
Research Services
The research infrastructure is "Open for Collaboration". Commercial collaborations are not possible.
Methods & Expertise for Research Infrastructure
Our team focusing on luminescence geochronology is headed by Michael Meyer. We aim at solving geological and archaeological questions by applying Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating to a wide range of depositional environments including lake, river, aeolian, glacial and peri-glacial environments as well as cave-mouth sediments and other more exotic deposits.