Atom counting with accelerator mass spectrometry

Autor(en)

Walter Kutschera, Timothy A. J. Jull, Michael Paul, Anton Wallner

Abstrakt

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) was born in the late 1970s, when it was realized at nuclear physics laboratories that the accelerator systems can be used as a sensitive mass spectrometer to measure ultralow traces of long-lived radioisotopes. It soon became possible to measure radioisotope-to-stable-isotope ratios in the range from 10−12 to 10−16 by counting the radioisotope ions “atom by atom” and comparing the count rate with ion currents of stable isotopes (1.6  μA=1×1013 singly charged ions/s). It turned out that electrostatic tandem accelerators are best suited for this, and there are now worldwide about 160 AMS facilities based on this principle. This review presents the history, technological developments, and research areas of AMS through the 45 yr since its discovery. Many different fields are touched by AMS measurements, including archaeology, astrophysics, atmospheric science, biology, climatology, cosmic-ray physics, environmental physics, forensic science, glaciology, geophormology, hydrology, ice core research, meteoritics, nuclear physics, oceanography, and particle physics. Since it is virtually impossible to discuss all fields in detail in this review, only specific fields with recent advances are highlighted in detail. For the others, an effort is made to provide relevant references for in-depth studies of the respective fields.

Organisation(en)

Isotopenphysik

Externe Organisation(en)

Hebrew University Jerusalem, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Technische Universität Dresden, University of Arizona, HUN-REN Magyar Kutatási Hálózat

Journal

Reviews of Modern Physics

Band

95

Anzahl der Seiten

63

ISSN

0034-6861

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.95.035006

Publikationsdatum

09-2023

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103014 Kernphysik, 103004 Astrophysik

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Physik und Astronomie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/6307a692-29b1-4920-86b0-d771971cdf39