Isobar separation at very low energy for AMS

Developments in Radiocarbon Technologies: From the Libby Counter to Compound-Specific AMS Analyses

“…This variation of AMS is potentially important because positive ions as well as anions can be separated in chemical reaction cells prior to the acceleration through 250 kV. This has not yet been tried, but the potential to separate isobars using cations (Bandura et al 2006) is probably greater than that for using anions (Litherland et al 2007). For both anions and cations, 14 C dating can in principle be carried out with the help of chemical reaction cells.…”

Fluoride sample matrices and reaction cells — new capabilities for isotope measurements in accelerator mass spectrometry

“…Litherland et al [13] outlined a solution to these difficulties with a device known as the Isobar Separator for Anions (ISA) [14]. The beam of rare ions which includes the isotope of interest and any isobars, is decelerated using electric fields, then further reduced in energy by elastic collisions with an inert gas, guided by radio-frequency (RF) quadrupoles (a process known as ion cooling).…”

“…1 of ref. [13]. Preliminary tests with the ISA prototype [3] used small (nanoampere) beams of the stable isotopes of Cl and S as proxies to establish the attenuation factors as the pressure of NO 2 in the cell was varied.…”

Accelerator mass spectrometry – from DNA to astrophysics

“…1, [1]). Although 14 C comprise about 90% of all AMS measurements, more than 50 different radionuclides across the nuclear chart -both natural and man-made -are by now being utilized by AMS. This led to a wide variety of AMS applications in almost every domain of our environment at large [2].…”

“…Two special applications will be treated in more detail. The use of the 14 C bomb peak to determine the age of human cells by dating DNA extracted from them, and the search for superheavy nuclides in nature.…”