Speaker
Description
Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is a sensitive technique for counting single atoms. The technique was developed in nuclear physics laboratories in the late 1970s for $^{14}$C, and subsequently extended to other isotopes, including $^{10}$Be, $^{36}$Cl, and $^{129}$I. In general, the AMS method employs a positive high-voltage tandem accelerator to accelerate negative ions. Almost exclusively, the negative ions are produced by cesium sputtering sources. Cesium sputter sources have a long history, much of it intimately linked to the development of AMS. Despite nearly five decades of development, the ion source remains the most maintenance-intensive and least understood component of an AMS system. We present some of our efforts to improve the performance of our cesium sputtering source, and additionally, our experience with a novel gas-accepting ECR-type ion source coupled to a charge exchange canal.
| Email address | mroberts@whoi.edu |
|---|---|
| Funding Agency | United States National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement OCE-2244731 |
| Classification | Applications of Negative sources - medical (diagnostics, therapy), industrial (implantation, materials analysis, carbon dating, discovery science |