Low quartz sensitivities have been reported in several studies in Iran, and in part this is presumed to be a result of the volcanic provenance of many of the sediments in the study areas. In this study we test experimentally whether a quartz sample, extracted from an andesitic rock and showing an insensitive fast component in the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) signal, can be sensitised using optical and thermal methods.

The luminescence characteristics of quartz extracted from a rock sample from a landslide in Iran (Rudbar-Manjil) are compared to those of a well-characterised quartz sample. We find that very few of aliquots prepared from extracted quartz grains show any sensitivity of the most easily stimulated part of the OSL signal, but that ∼23% of aliquots give detectable initial signals after repeated dosing and bleaching. Surprisingly, a large fraction of the most easily stimulated quartz OSL is removed by infra-red stimulation, even though there is no significant IRSL signal in the UV. However thermal annealing at 700 °C gives rise to a test-dose response that is unaffected by IR. This annealing sensitises all aliquots to some degree and induces a signal which is stable up to 260 °C, in contrast to that following optical sensitisation, which begins to decrease when heated to 140 °C. The implications of these observations are discussed, both in terms of luminescence process and potential for dating.

伊朗的几项研究报告了石英敏感性较低，部分原因是研究区域许多沉积物的火山源所致。在这项研究中，我们通过实验测试了从安山岩中提取的石英样品是否可以使用光学和热方法敏化，并且在光受激发光 (OSL) 信号中显示出不敏感的快速成分。

从伊朗山体滑坡 (Rudbar-Manjil) 的岩石样本中提取的石英的发光特性与充分表征的石英样本的发光特性进行了比较。我们发现，从提取的石英颗粒制备的等分试样中，很少对 OSL 信号最容易刺激的部分表现出任何敏感性，但约 23% 的等分试样在重复给药和漂白后给出了可检测的初始信号。令人惊讶的是，即使在紫外线中没有明显的 IRSL 信号，大部分最容易刺激的石英 OSL 也会被红外刺激去除。然而，700 °C 的热退火会产生不受红外影响的测试剂量响应。这种退火使所有等分试样在一定程度上敏化，并产生在高达 260 °C 时稳定的信号，而光学敏化后的信号在加热至 140 °C 时开始减弱。讨论了这些观察结果的意义，包括发光过程和测年潜力。