Progress on the HVEE 14C isotope ratio mass spectrometer for biomedical applications

During the last two decades Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) has allowed major developments in many areas of geoscience and archaeology. It is projected that in the near future a similar potential for AMS is likely in the field of biomedical research leading, ultimately, to clinical applications. For such applications, the required instrumentation differs significantly from that presently used in the field of 14C dating. While the accuracy and sensitivity needed are more than an order of magnitude less demanding than that for present state-of-the-art 14C analysis, the availability of AMS spectrometers that are small, simple to operate and that are capable to handle CO2 samples is conditional upon a widespread acceptance of 14C AMS in biomedical research. In order to satisfy these demands, HVEE has developed a compact 14C AMS spectrometer dedicated to biomedical research. The instrument consists of a compact accelerator with a footprint of 2.25 × 1.25 m and an ion source that features direct CO2 acceptance and optimal user friendliness. The layout and the design of the accelerator was presented elsewhere [D.J.W. Mous, K.H. Purser, W. Fokker, R. van den Broek, R.B. Koopmans, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B 123 (1997) 159]. In this contribution, we discuss the progress on the accelerator. Furthermore, the design and first results of the CO2 ion source are presented.