Study of spectrally resolved thermoluminescence in Tsarev and Chelyabinsk chondrites with a versatile high-sensitive setup

TL;DR

This study employs a highly sensitive spectrally resolved thermoluminescence setup to analyze natural and induced TL in Chelyabinsk and Tsarev meteorites, revealing trap distributions and activation energies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel high-sensitive module for measuring spectral TL in meteorites, enabling detailed analysis of trap distributions and energy parameters.

Findings

Detected a quasi-continuous trap distribution in the 350-650 K range.

Estimated activation energies of 0.86 eV for Chelyabinsk and 1.08 eV for Tsarev.

Analyzed emission spectra and glow curves across 300-650 nm and RT-873 K.

Abstract

Thermoluminescence (TL) research provides a powerful tool for characterizing radiation-induced processes in extraterrestrial matter. One of the challenges in studying the spectral features of the natural TL of stony meteorites is its weak intensity. The present work showcases the capabilities of a high-sensitive original module for measuring the spectrally resolved TL characteristics of the Chelyabinsk and Tsarev chondrites. We have analyzed the emission spectra and glow curves of natural and induced TL over the 300 - 650 nm and RT - 873 K ranges. A quasi-continuous distribution of traps active within the 350 - 650 K range was found in the silicate substructure of both meteorites under study. Based on the general order kinetic formalism and using the natural TL data, we also estimated the activation energies of 0.86 and 1.08 eV for the Chelyabinsk and Tsarev chondrites, respectively.