Optimization of ¹⁰Be measurements at the 6 MV AMS facility DREAMS

We investigated benefits from raising the ion beam energy during measurements of 10Be with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) at the 6MV DREAMS (DREsden AMS) facility. Increasing the terminal voltage to ≥ 5MV hardly reduces the yield of the Be2+ charge state after the accelerator if one applies only a thin Ar gas stripper and makes use of an overpopulation of the 2+ charge state with respect to the expected equilibrium charge state yield. As a further stripping to the 4+ charge state is conducted in a 1 μm silicon nitride degrader foil after the analysing magnet, it is desirable to hit this foil with the highest available velocity in order to have optimal stripping of 10Be2+ to the naked ion. The efficiency of 10Be measurements can be improved by ca. 36% if increasing the terminal voltage from 4.5MV to 5.8MV and already by 7.5% if going to 5.0MV.