Direct coupling of a laser ablation cell to an AMS Nuclear Instruments and Methods

Abstract

In rare cases, cleaned samples can be directly inserted into a negative ion source of an AMS and still meet the requirements for long-term and stable measurements. We present the coupling of a laser ablation system to the gas ion source of an AMS system (MICADAS, ETH Zurich) for direct and continuous CO2 introduction. Solid carbonate samples like stalagmites or corals are suitable sample materials, which can be ablated and decomposed continuously using a pulsed laser focused onto the surface of a solid sample, which is placed in an airtight ablation cell. CO2 formed during the ablation of a CaCO3 sample is continually flushed with He into the gas ion source. The production rate of CO2 can be adjusted via the laser pulse repetition rate (1–20 Hz), the crater diameter (1–150 μm) and the energy density applied (0.2–3 mJ/pulse) of the laser (frequency quintupled Nd:YAG at 213 nm with 5 ns pulse duration). In our first test, measurements of one sample with known age were replicated within one sigma. Blanks showed 5% contamination of modern carbon of yet unknown origin. In order to develop LA-AMS into a routine sampling tool the ablation cell geometry and settings of the gas ion source have to be further optimized.