Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T08:12:34.298Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Capabilities of the New SUERC 5MV AMS Facility for 14C Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

S Xu ,
R Anderson ,
C Bryant ,
G T Cook ,
A Dougans ,
S Freeman ,
P Naysmith ,
C Schnabel  and
E M Scott
S Xu*
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom.
R Anderson
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom.
C Bryant
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom.
G T Cook
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom.
A Dougans
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom.
S Freeman
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom.
P Naysmith
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom.
C Schnabel
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom.
E M Scott
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QW, United Kingdom.
*
Corresponding author. Email: s.xu@suerc.gla.ac.uk.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A new National Electrostatic Corporation (NEC) 5MV accelerator mass spectrometer became operational at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) in July 2002. It has 2 Cs sputter negative ion sources: a 134-sample source (S1) for the routine measurement of all species, and a hybrid source (S2) with 40 spaces for radiocarbon measurements with either graphite or CO2 samples. A number of performance tests on graphite samples have been carried out on both sources. A precison of better than 0.3% is feasible for modern samples on a routine basis. The 14C background of the machine and the graphite preparation process blank are 0.04 ± 0.01 and 0.16 ± 0.05 pMC, respectively, indicating that 14C dating back to ~50 kyr BP is possible. The normalized 14C values for a series of reference materials agree well with the IAEA, TIRI, and FIRI consensus values. Routine measurement of 14C has been underway since May 2003. Preliminary results of performance tests on the CO2 gas ion source are also reported.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 46 , Issue 1: Proceedings of the 18th International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2), Conference Editors: Nancy Beavan Athfield, Rodger J Sparks , 2004 , pp. 59 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Bonani, G, Beer, J, Hofmann, H, Synal, HA, Suter, M, Wölfli, W, Pfleiderer, C, Kromer, B, Junghans, C. Münnich, KO. 1987. Fractionation, precision and accuracy in 14C and 13C measurements. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 29: 87–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clercq, ML, van der Plicht, J, Gröning, M. 1998. New 14C reference materials with activities of 15 and 50 pMC. Radiocarbon 40(1):295–7.Google Scholar
Donahue, DJ, Linick, TW, Jull, AJT. 1990. Isotope-ratio and background corrections for accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon measurement. Radiocarbon 32(2):135–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, S, Bishop, P, Bryant, C, Cook, G, Fallick, A, Harkness, D, Metcalfe, S, Scott, M, Scott, R, Summerfield, M. Forthcoming a. A new environmental sciences AMS laboratory in Scotland. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B. Google Scholar
Freeman, S, Xu, S, Schnabel, C, Dougans, A, Tait, A, Kitchen, R, Klody, G, Loger, R, Pollock, T, Schroeder, J, Sundquist, M. Forthcoming b. Initial measurements with the SUERC 5MV spectrometer. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B. Google Scholar
Gulliksen, S, Scott, EM. 1995. Report of the TIRI workshop, Saturday, 13 August 1994. Radiocarbon 37(2): 820–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middleton, R, Klein, J, Fink, D. 1989. A CO2 negative ion source for 14C dating. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 43:231–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsey, CB, Hedges, REM. 1997. Hybrid ion sources: radiocarbon measurements from microgram to milligram. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 123:539–45.Google Scholar
Rozanski, K, Stichler, W, Gonfiantini, R, Scott, EM, Beukens, RP, Kromer, B, var der Plicht, J. 1992. The IAEA 14C intercomparison exercise 1990. Radiocarbon 34(3):506–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scot, EM. 2003. The Fourth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (FIRI). Radiocarbon 45(2):135–291.Google Scholar
Slota, PJ Jr, Jull, AJT, Linick, TW, Toolin, LJ. 1987. Preparation of small samples for 14C accelerator targets by catalytic reduction of CO. Radiocarbon 29(2):303–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar