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Published on: May 3, 2019
Fast atom-trap analysis of 39Ar with isotope pre-enrichment
Amin L Tong1, Ji-Qiang Gu1, Ze-Hua Jia2
1Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei 230026, China.
Abstract:
We demonstrate fast analysis of 39Ar/Ar at the 10-16 level using a mass spectrometer for isotope pre-enrichment and an atom trap for counting. An argon gas sample first passes through a dipole mass separator that reduces the dominant isotope 40Ar by two orders of magnitude while preserving both the rare tracer isotope 39Ar and a minor stable isotope 38Ar for control purposes. Measurements of both natural and enriched samples with atom trap trace analysis demonstrate that the 39Ar/38Ar ratios change less than 10%, while the overall count rates of 39Ar are increased by one order of magnitude. By overcoming the analysis-speed bottleneck, this advance will benefit large-scale applications of 39Ar dating in the earth sciences, particularly for mapping ocean circulation.
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