Talk by Andreas Næsby

Stimulated luminescence as a non-destructive analysis method for ice core samples

ABSTRACT In this talk I will briefly sketch the progress that we have made in the last couple of months towards a prototype setup for ice analysis using optically stimulated luminescence. This method promises to be a new non-destructive analysis method that quickly will be able to measure impurities in ice core.

Stimulated luminescence is an experimental technique where a high power excitation stimulates generation of electron-hole pairs in the sample, and the path of recombination of these pairs leads to scattering in the sample on e.g. impurities which results in a redshift in the emitted radiation compared to the excitation energy. Thus the emitted luminescence carries information of the recombination path in the sample and thus the emission spectrum is indicative of the content of the sample.

It is the hope that this method will enable an additional non-destructive analysis of ice cores, and while it certainly will not beat the sensitivity of all the known high-fidelity measurement techniques, it is the hope that that it could complement these methods with a new fast analysis method. Additionally it could potentially be employed in the field, or even as a  analysis method for deploying directly in the drill hole.