Accelerator mass spectrometry: revealing subtle signals in ice sheets
Journal: The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Institutional Repository (The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation)
Year: 2013

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) determines the ratio of a rare isotope, normally radioactive and of intermediate half-life, to a stable isotope. AMS permits\nthe detection of individual atoms in a sample and so is an inherently sensitive analytical technique. A well-known\nexample is radiocarbon dating (14C, t1/2 = 5730 a), where measurement of the 14C/12C ratio permits determination of the age of an artifact. Such AMS measurements can be\nperformed rapidly (~ 20 min), at good precision (~ 0