Evaluating the potential of Q-Band ESR spectroscopy for dose reconstruction of fossil tooth enamel

Abstract

The potential of Q-band Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) for quantitative measurements has been scarcely evaluated in the literature and its application for dose reconstruction of fossil tooth enamel with dating purposes remains still quite unknown. Hence, we have performed a comparative study based on several Early to Middle Pleistocene fossil tooth samples using both X- and Q-band spectroscopies. Our results show that Q-band offers a significant improvement in terms of sensitivity and signal resolution: it allows not only to work with reduced amounts of valuable samples (< 4 mg), but also to identify different components of the main composite ESR signal. However, inherent precision of the ESR intensity measurements at Q-band is clearly lower than that achieved at X-band, highlighting the necessity to carry out repeated measurements. All dose values derived from X- and Q-band are nevertheless systematically consistent at either 1 or 2 sigma. In summary, our results indicate that Q-band could now be considered as a reliable tool for ESR dosimetry/dating of fossil teeth although further work is required to improve the repeatability of the measurements.