A Low-Cost Miniature Counter System for Radiocarbon Dating (original) (raw)
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Radiocarbon, 2014
The University of Bern has set up the new Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA) equipped with an accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) MICADAS (MIni CArbon Dating System) to continue its long history of 14C analysis based on conventional counting. The new laboratory is designated to provide routine 14C dating for archaeology, climate research, and other disciplines at the University of Bern and to develop new analytical systems coupled to the gas ion source for 14C analysis of specific compounds or compound classes with specific physical properties. Measurements of reference standards and wood samples dated by dendrochronology demonstrate the quality of the 14C analyses performed at the new laboratory.
Direct Detection in Radiocarbon Dating
Journal of Field Archaeology, 1978
The conventional radiocarbon dating method relies on the accurate measurement of a sample's beta-ray decay rate in order to determine the age of the sample. The new method instead counts the individual14C atoms in a sample using an ultra-sensitive mass spectrometer. There are numerous advantages to this approach. The problem of . cosmic ray background does not arise. Shorter counting . ",,{imes on samples a thousand times smaller may be possible. We might also"expect the production of more accurate age determinations. The new method will permit a great expansion in the variety of archaeological materials which can be dated because only milligram samples will be required. Research on the design of a dedicated 14C atom-counting machine is now in progress.