Accelerator Mass Spectrometry with ⁵³Mn at the University of Notre Dame

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) utilizes various ion counting techniques to measure ultra-low concentrations of long lived radioisotopes. At the University of Notre Dame’s Nuclear Science Laboratory (NSL), an FN Tandem accelerator is used in conjunction with a Browne-Buechner Spectrograph operated in gas-filled mode and various detection systems to perform AMS. A new split-anode ionization chamber, MONICA, went through multiple commissioning runs at the NSL. As part of these commissioning runs, standard material (⁵³Mn/⁵⁵Mn = 2.53*10^-10) and independently measured samples for ⁵³Mn were analyzed for the first time at the NSL. ⁵³Mn is an isotope of interest in AMS as it can be used as a geological chronometer and be used to study the deposition of interstellar matter on Earth. The low level detection of this isotope is challenging due to its stable isobar of ⁵³Cr and various suppression techniques are required to separate them. Analysis of the results and experimental techniques will be presented for this report.