Assessing the influence of the cavity temperature on the ESR signal of the Aluminum center in quartz grains extracted from sediment

Abstract

In the present work, we briefly assess the potential of the Bruker Digital Temperature control system for ESR dosimetry/dating purpose and try to quantify the influence of the cavity temperature on the ESR signal of Aluminum center. Our results also show that it is possible to reach a consistent level of repeatability in the ESR measurements with the Bruker Variable Temperature Unit (VTU) system, not only in terms of ESR intensities, but also for the equivalent dose (DE) values. As expected, our results show a strong influence of the temperature on the ESR signal of Aluminum center. Given that dependence, it is recommended to apply some corrections factors, especially when working around 90 K, in order to remove the systematic bias that may be induced by slight cavity temperature variations occurring during the measurement of a sample. However, despite the previous observations, there is no apparent impact of the temperature on the calculated DE, whatever the cavity temperature between 90 and 110 K.