A compact 14C Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer for biomedical applications

During the last two decades the unparalleled sensitivity of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has allowed major developments in many areas of geoscience and archeology. It is projected that in the near future a similar potential for AMS expansion is likely in the field of biomedical research leading, ultimately, to clinical applications. As an example of the growth of this new field, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Center for AMS the number of biomedical ¹⁴C measurements already represents a significant fraction of the total for all ¹⁴C. Widespread adoption of AMS in the biomedical field does require, however, the availability of instruments that are small in comparison with existing AMS systems and that will operate in a manner that is simple and user-friendly. To meet this demand, High Voltage Engineering Europa (HVEE) has developed a miniature, high-efficiency AMS instrument designed to provide for biomedical samples {¹⁴C}/{¹²C} ratios with an accuracy better than 2% and with backgrounds limitations below 0.1 Modern. The current status of this program will be presented in the present paper.