Device of the Month
May 2013
Radiocarbon Dating with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)

The group of PD Dr. Sönke Szidat recently commissioned the Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA) in collaboration with the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research. This laboratory aims at the dating of environmental archives such as ice cores and sediments as well as archeological samples.
The instrumental development for measurement of specific chemical fractions and individual compounds was published in Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B (see references below).

References:

  • L. Wacker, S. M. Fahrni, I. Hajdas, M. Molnar, H.-A. Synal, S. Szidat, Y. L. Zhang;
    "A versatile gas interface for routine radiocarbon analysis with a gas ion source"
    Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B, 294, 315-319, (2013); doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2012.02.009.
  • S. M. Fahrni, L. Wacker, H.-A. Synal, S. Szidat;
    "Improving a gas ion source for 14C AMS"
    Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B, 294, 320-327, (2013); doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2012.03.037.