A new 7Be AMS capability established at CAMS and the potential for large datasets

Abstract

Abstract We have developed a 7Be measurement capability at the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS) at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. This capability is tested with dilutions of a commercial 7Be tracer, a new 7Be reference material produced at CAMS (which we verify to be free of 10Be), and with experimental targets from a variety of sample matrices. Our results indicate that 7Be can be measured at high precision for low activities (∼1% for 0.1 Bq; ∼10% for 0.001 Bq), with an estimated detection limit of ∼0.0001 Bq (7Be/9Be of ∼7 × 10−17; equivalent to ∼103 atoms)—more than two orders of magnitude lower than that typical of counting techniques. Furthermore, because 10Be and 7Be sample preparation are identical, both isotopes can be measured on the same target with no additional laboratory preparation.