Prospects of new geological applications with a microbeam-AMS

摘要

Microbeam AMS enables measurements of trace elements at the sub-ppb level and of isotopic data from single mineral grains, the basic constituents of geological smaples, offering ossibilities of new applications. With elimination of molecular ions, and the flexibility of choice of injected ions to suppress isobaric interference, micro-AMS eliminates the problems encountered by ion microprobes, allowing more general access to a number of important geochronological systems such as U/Pb, Rb/Sr and Re/os. The strict demands of applications in geochronology pose a great challenge in the development of a microbeam AMS, testing the limits of the analytical method itself and in the design of the instrument.