AMS with a 14 million volt accelerator – 53Mn and 60Fe measurements at ANU

The AMS program at ANU’s Department of Nuclear Physics is based on a 14UD tandem accelerator which runs regularly above 14 MV with stable measurement conditions. This setup provides particle energies between ~24 MeV (actinides) and >200 MeV (e.g. 53Mn, 93Zr). The facility is equipped with a dedicated SNICS ion source, provides typically 155 keV beam injection energy and is capable of a simultaneous use of both gas and foil stripper. Dedicated beamlines feature multi-anode ionisation chambers, an ENGE gas-filled magnet and a 6m TOF flight path. Further, a new fast cycling system is now being implemented (see contribution by L.K. Fifield et al.) that will replace our slow cycling method.

The ANU has a strong focus in projects in environmental, safeguards and geological research with several nuclear astrophysics projects added recently as an additional major research topic. New isotopes recently introduced include 60Fe, 93Zr, 210Pb, 210mBi and 231Pa. We will give an overview of recent research activities and will summarize the performance of the different AMS setups. The potential of the ENGE setup for isobaric suppression will be exemplified for the two isotopes 60Fe and 53Mn. Measurement reproducibility and absolute detection efficiency will be compared.