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Accelerator Mass Spectrometry from 1979 till 2009 |
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Accelerator
Mass Spectrometry (AMS) has made a revolutionary contribution to the
measurement of cosmogenic radionuclides. Cosmogenic
radio nuclides are produced in nuclear reactions by fast particles from the
cosmic rays. On the Earth they are
produced The cosmogenic radio nuclides have extremely small concentrations. Compared to its stable isotope they have isotope ratio's in the range of 10-12 to 10-15. In AMS these small concentrations are measured by counting individual atoms, which is realized by a combination of ion beam and detection techniques developed in nuclear physics. In radiocarbon dating of small samples, 1 mg of carbon (or even less) AMS has contributed to a broad range of disciplines. The importance of AMS has been also recognized in biomedical applications with tracer studies with very low doses of 14C and 41Ca, which can be performed in vivo and in vitro. The AMS-facility in the
Van de Graaff laboratory of Utrecht University is based on the 6 MV tandem Van de
Analyses are performed in
a broad range of research disciplines. Most of these concern radiocarbon
dating for applications in earth sciences and cultural sciences, an to a
lesser extent with other radio nuclides. Analyses are performed as part of
projects or are as a service at the corresponding
tariff. |
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