SUERC AMS ion detection

In a short time Be, C, Al, Cl, Ca and I accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) have been established on the National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 5 MV pelletron system at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC). While summarising the present performance of the system, this report will focus on the details of ion detection, which sample materials are used and the analytical procedures employed for each individual species during routine analysis. All rare isotope detection is with a single flexible detector and ion event analysis system, but switching of analysed species typically requires a detector reconfiguration. Configurations for routine Be-10, C-14, Al-26, Cl-36, Ca-41 and I-129 detection have been established and will be presented here. Notably, there has proven to be sufficient suppression of the isobaric interferences of Cl-36 and Ca-41 in the 5+ charge state using an argon gas stripper at a terminal voltage of 5.0 MV to allow for routine analysis of these isotopes. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.