Miniature AMS detector for ultrasensitive detection of individual carbon-14 and tritium atoms

摘要

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) demonstrates more than a million times greater sensitivity for 14C atoms and a thousand times greater sensitivity for tritium atoms than is possible using classical beta particle detection. This improved sensitivity can be used to help understand the role that chemical pollutants at ambient concentrations play in metabolic processes and in initiating mutations. Such measurements are critical to understanding many biomedical processes and establishing relevant environmental regulations. The present invention comprehends a device that can be used for the direct detection of either carbon-14 or tritium atoms. Unique features are that the highest acceleration voltage needed is only about 200 kilovolts and that vacuum insulation can be used to provide the necessary electrical insulation, rather than the high pressure sulfur hexafluoride gas, that is a characteristic of most electrostatic accelerators.