Development of AMS at Daresbury for fully-stripped heavy ions

Abstract The tandem Van de Graaff at Daresbury was designed for heavy-ion physics and operates with a maximum of 20 MV on the centre terminal. Development work has been carried out to use the Nuclear Structure Facility (NSF) for mass spectrometry and measure the isotopes 26 Al and 36 Cl for biological and geological applications respectively. Extraction currents from a Middleton ion source have been optimised for AlO − and Cl − . The machine optics were aligned and stabilised using 26 Mg and 36 S. These ions, which were fully stripped by a carbon foil, were analysed in a QMG 2 magnetic spectrometer and measured in a detector at the focal plane. Linear calibrations over two orders of magnitude have been obtained for both masses and a concentration of one radioactive isotope in 10 13 of the stable isotope has been analysed. Geological ground water and biological samples have been measured.