26Al measurements with 10Be counting statistics

The potential of the Al-26 isotope for exposure and burial dating applications has not been fully realized to date due to the low efficiency for producing the Al- ion in negative ion sources. Here, we show that it is possible to use the AlO- ion instead, which is produced an order of magnitude more efficiently, provided that a gas-filled magnet is employed to reduce the intense flux Of Mg-26 ions at the detector. It is then possible to achieve comparable counting statistics for Al-26 as for the much more widely used Be-10. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.