AMS measurement of 53Mn and its initial application at CIAE

The determination of cosmogenic Mn-53 in terrestrial archives has important applications, such as burial ages, exposure age and erosion rates. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is the most sensitive technique to detect minute amounts of Mn-53. Mn-53 measurements were developed at the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) using the Delta E-Q3D equipped AMS system. This approach was recently optimized with the goal to reach the sensitivity required for AMS measurements of Mn-53 in deep-sea ferromanganese crust (DSFC) samples. Based on these improvements of sample preparation, current beam transmission and so on, Mn-53 in two samples of DSFC was measured by AMS. The ratios of Mn-53/Mn corresponding to an age of 3.77 +/- 0.42 and 13.73 +/- 2.74 Ma by I-129 dating method are (5.01 +/- 2.15) x 10(-13) and (1.90 +/- 0.96) x 10(-13). The ratios are close to the experimental reference values, deduced from the previous research. The experimental progress, performances and results are presented in this contribution. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.