A technique for determining the time since a mineral sediment was last exposed to sunlight, in which electrons trapped at light-sensitive locations within the mineral are excited using an intense light source, and the resulting luminescence is measured.
Origin
1980s; earliest use found in Nature: a weekly journal of science.
Definition of optical dating in US English:
optical dating
noun
Archaeology
A technique for determining the time since a mineral sediment was last exposed to sunlight, in which electrons trapped at light-sensitive locations within the mineral are excited using an intense light source, and the resulting luminescence is measured.
Origin
1980s; earliest use found in Nature: a weekly journal of science.