Systematic investigations of (super 14) C measurements at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator.

Abstract

A newly operating accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) facility such as VERA has to go through an extensive testing phase in order to establish optimal conditions for (super 14) C measurements, especially in the field of archaeological samples where an overall precision of 0.5% is desirable. We discuss the results of our measurements at the milligram carbon level as they relate to long-term stability, reproducibility, precision and isotope fractionation.