Anomalous fading correction in luminescence dating – a mathematical reappraisal

Abstract

Anomalous fading is a power law decay of trapped charge over time that is commonly observed in wide-bandgap semiconductors, leading to age underestimation in luminescence dating if unaccounted for. In this paper, we reappraise the mathematical foundations of luminescence signal correction and introduce two new closed-form analytical expressions for the two most commonly used age correction models, namely that of Huntley and Lamothe (2001), and that of Kars et al. (2008). These expressions are amenable to straightforward uncertainty propagation, matching results from Monte-Carlo simulations at a fraction of the calculation cost. Additionally, we explore unorthodox combinations of signal fading and growth pathways, by coupling fading models to signal growth obeying general order kinetics, as well as the one-trap one-recombination center model.