R.C. Finkel, M. Suter
Advances in Analytical Geochemistry 1 (1993) 1-114
Accelerator mass spectrometry(AMS) of long-lived radioisotopes has become an important tool in environmental sciences. Worldwide. several thousand measurements arc performed every year. Radiocarbon studies make up the majority of applications, for which reduction of sample size is the main advantage compared to conventional decay counting techniques. In addition, the efficient detection of radioisotopes with longer half-lives, such as 10Be, 26Al. 36Cl. 41Ca. and 129I, has opened up a large varify of new applications which could not have been undertaken with decay counting. In the geosciences, radioisotopes are used both to date geophysical and geochemical events and as tracers of geophysical processes. Applications cover the spectrum of geoscience. including studies of climate history, investigations of magma generation processes in subduction zones, determination of terrestrial ages of meteorites embedded in Antarctic ice, unravelling the historyof solar activity cycles. and many other areas.
We intend this article for scientists and students who want to be inforrncd about the potential and the limitations of AMS. It gives an introduction both to the AMS technique and to the wide range of applications in which AMS has been used.
The article is organized into two sections. In the first section instrumental techniques are described based on the present status of operating systems. !n the second section applications arc discussed first in general terms and then on a nuclide-by-nuclidc basis. The two sections are almost independent of each other, so that the reader can easily read one section or the other depending on his or her interest. In the technical section the basic principles of the AMS method are discussed in sufficient detail to allow the reader to understand and interpret AMS data. The level of general perfomance which has currently been attained is discussed and the factors which limit sensitivity, efficiency, and accuracy are given. This discussion should enable the reader to estimate the potential of AMS for a specific application.