Status report of the NRL TEAMS facility

Issues and opportunities in accelerator mass spectrometry for stable isotopes

“…Notwithstanding the exhaustive review of Fifield and recent publications by Suter and Kutschera, a fresh look at the field is warranted since researchers have also turned to AMS for further uses not extensively examined there, such as the application of AMS to stable isotope mass spectrometry for impurity analysis in a variety of materials science disciplines, as well as for samples of geophysical interests (Sie et al, 2002;Jull & Burr, 2006). Stable isotope AMS (SI-AMS), that is, sometimes also called Trace Element AMS (TEAMS) (Zhao et al, 1996;Knies et al, 2004) among other acronyms, in general, strives for high sensitivity, a wide mass range and extreme elemental discrimination in contrast to radio-isotopic applications of AMS that require a higher precision for a narrower range of elements without the complication of spurious background signals from the matrix of the sample but often in the presence of isobaric inferences, for example, as in the case of the radio-isotope 36 Cl in the presence of naturally occurring 36 S. The divergent concerns between the two applications have shaped a difference in the development and design of the instruments applied to radioisotope or to stable isotope mass spectrometry. Moreover, the variation between AMS for radioisotopes and for isotopically stable species is sufficient to justify a close re-examination of the instrumentation science that has been developed to meet the needs of SI-AMS.…”