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14C AMS Measurements of <100 μG Samples with a High-Current System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Karl F. Von Reden
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences, AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 USA
Ann P. McNichol
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences, AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 USA
Ann Pearson
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences, AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 USA
Robert J. Schneider
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences, AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 USA
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Abstract

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The NOSAMS facility at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has started to develop and apply techniques for measuring very small samples on a standard Tandetron accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) system with high-current hemispherical Cs sputter ion sources. Over the past year, results on samples ranging from 7 to 160 μg C showed both the feasibility of such analyses and the present limitations on reducing the size of solid carbon samples. One of the main factors affecting the AMS results is the dependence of a number of the beam optics parameters on the extracted ion beam current. The extracted currents range from 0.5 to 10 μA of 12C for the sample sizes given above. We here discuss the setup of the AMS system and methods for reliable small-sample measurements and give the AMS-related limits to sample size and the measurement uncertainties.

Type
Part 1: Methods
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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