DEVELOPMENTS IN RADIOCARBON TECHNOLOGIES: FROM THE LIBBY COUNTER TO COMPOUND-SPECIFIC AMS ANALYSES

We review developments in radiocarbon measuring techniques from the Libby counter through proportional gas counters and liquid scintillation spectrometers to the more recent developments of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), followed by a coupling of gas chromatography with AMS for compound-specific C-14 analyses. While during the first 60 yr of C-14 measurements beta counting, specifically gas counting, was the dominant technique, in the future of C-14 science AMS will be the dominant technology.