Superlinearity of synthetic quartz: Dependence on the ®ring temperature C. Charitidis a,b, * , G. Kitis b , C. Furetta c , S. Charalambous b a Department of Physics, Solid State Physics Section, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 540 06 Thessaloniki, Greece b Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 540 06 Thessaloniki, Greece c Dipartimento di Fisica, Universit a di Roma La Sapienza, Piazzale A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy Received 16 November 1999; received in revised form 14 December 1999 Abstract In the present work, the sensitivity and thermoluminescence (TL) dose response behaviour of glow-peaks of synthetic quartz are studied as a function of the ®ring temperature between 300°C and 900°C in steps of 100°C. Complete TL dose response curves in the dose region, 0.1 up to 170 Gy were obtained at each ®ring temperature. Each TL dose response curve consists of two dose regions, which on a log±log scale have dierent slopes, k, indicating two dierent degrees of superlinearity. In the case of the glow-peak at 110°C, the TL dose response curves were ®tted with an an- alytical expression. From the ®tting procedure the superlinearity index gD was evaluated as a function of dose. The results show that the ®ring temperature in¯uences the TL dose response behaviour of all glow-peaks. However, the eects are more profound on the glow-peak at 110°C. The superlinearity index gD is strongly reduced as the ®ring temperature increases. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 78.60.Kn; 78.60.-b; 29.40.Wk Keywords: Thermoluminescence; Quartz; Superlinearity index; Firing temperature 1. Introduction The thermoluminescence (TL) sensitivity of quartz is strongly in¯uenced by ®ring it at high temperatures. The in¯uence is induced in both natural [1] and synthetic quartz [2]. Being one of the basic materials for TL dating, quartz is sub- jected to high ®ring temperatures during the fab- rication of ceramics. Therefore, the TL sensitivity of quartz extracted from pottery could be the outcome of the ®ring temperature used. This led some authors to propose the sensitivity variation as a method to estimate the ®ring temperature of ancient ceramics [1]. However, some objections to the above have been reported [3]. Even more im- portant than the sensitivity variation is the varia- tion of the whole TL dose response behaviour. Toward this line, the work of Chen et al. [2], based Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 168 (2000) 404±410 www.elsevier.nl/locate/nimb * Corresponding author. Tel.: +30-31-998129; fax: +30-31- 246484. E-mail address: cchar@skiathos.physics.auth.gr (C. Chari- tidis). 0168-583X/00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 8 - 5 8 3 X ( 9 9 ) 0 1 1 9 9 - 4