Specific problems in determination of annual dose in the luminescence dating

Luminescence dating is a method used to determine the time elapsed since minerals present in the earth surface was last exposed to sunlight or heat. Therefore it commonly used dating the archaeological samples and the time of formation and/or variation of geological sedimentation. Luminescence dating can be applied the samples having wide age range of few years to few hundred years. In luminescence dating method, it is necessary to determine the environmental dose rate and the accumulated dose of the samples for age determination. In all these stages, it could be encountered with many difficulties. It is thought that having knowledge about these difficulties for researchers that planning to use this method could be contributed in both acceleration of the experimental process and also decreasing the error in obtained results. In this study, therefore, problems and solution suggestions of those problems in the determination of annual dose in luminescence dating were discussed. The annual dose levels of the geological area were determined with two different methods: indirect methods based on the determination of the naturally occurring radioactivity concentration and direct methods using thermoluminescence method. The sediment samples were collected from Sart-Salihli in Aegean Region. The concentrations of the natural radionuclides in soil samples were determined using HPGe γ-ray spectrometry system. In direct method, Al2O3:C thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs) having their high sensitivity and usability in dating studies were chosen. The luminescence intensities were measured using Harshaw TLD 3500 reader and the dose levels were calculated by luminescence signal emitted from dosimeters.The results obtained from both methods were compared and discussed.