Routine performance and biomedical/pharmaceutical applications of the HVE low-energy 14C AMS system

The HVE 4102Bo-AMS dedicated to C-14 analyses minimizes measurement background by using a charge state selector in the accelerator terminal. The measured blank C-14/C-12 level for solid samples was determined to be 5.6 x 10(-16), corresponding to more than 60,000 radiocarbon years. Tests on ion source memory indicated a prompt (<10 sec) decrease from OxII C-14/C-12 ratio (1.58 x 10(-12)) to similar to 1.2 x 10(-)1(5) for the next sample (>3 orders of magnitude) followed by an approx. 40 s decay time to the background level of 5 x 10(-16). The AMS system demonstrated its capability of supporting biomedical/pharmaceutical applications using CO2 samples from blood plasma with C-14 activities ranging from 1002 to 0.752 mBq/mL in a qualification test performed with an external partner.

Automated summary

The HVE 4102Bo-AMS dedicated to C-14 analyses reduces measurement background by using a charge state selector. The measured blank C-14/C-12 level for solid samples corresponds to more than 60,000 radiocarbon years. Ion source memory tests showed a prompt decrease in C-14/C-12 ratio from OxII (1.58 x 10(-12)) to the next sample (1.2 x 10(-15)) followed by a 40-second decay time to the background level of 5 x 10(-16). The AMS system demonstrated its capability for biomedical/pharmaceutical applications with CO2 samples from blood plasma.