Thermoluminescence

[corky]

So I spent a little time tonight looking up radiometric dating things
and happened to stumble across something called Thermoluminescence
dating, which I have never heard of before. Wiki here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoluminescence_dating

Anyway, the gist of it seems to be that for materials made up of some
sort of crystalline lattice, electrons can build up over time in
defects of the crystal. The electrons get popped loose as a result of
ionizing radiation or radioactive decay and may end up in lower
potential defects, where they just kind of hang out for a while. Over
time these electrons build up. BUT if you pump in enough energy,
either through heating up the crystal or shining UV light or something
on it, these electrons can get popped out of the defects and recombine
with ions. Getting hitched to an ion brings the electron to a lower
energy state (since it's now bound) and it emits a photon. These
photons can be measured as a fluorescence. Apparently, this can be
used to date pots.

Using the above method you can essentially determine the amount of
time that has passed since a rock/pot/whatever was last heated or
exposed to light. I have no idea how much light pops out (all the
graphs I've seen have been in "arbitrary units"). [ That could be a
fun problem, though..]

WHAT I REALLY WANT TO KNOW: Can I go out and get some feldspar and
put it in my oven and see it fluoresce? If so that would make me
super happy. I kind of doubt this will work though, or else I feel
like I would have heard about it already...