The new AMS system at CEDAD for the analysis of 10 Be, 26 Al, 129 I and actinides: Set-up and performances Lucio Calcagnile a,⇑ , Gianluca Quarta a , Lucio Maruccio a , Hans-Arno Synal b , Arnold Milenko Müller b a CEDAD (Centre for Dating and Diagnostics), Department of Engineering for Innovation, University of Salento, Italy b Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland article info Article history: Received 21 November 2014 Received in revised form 20 February 2015 Accepted 20 February 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Accelerator Mass Spectrometry 10 Be 26 Al 129 I abstract The Centre for Dating and Diagnostics (CEDAD) at the University of Salento was established in 2001 and became fully operational for routine 14 C radiocarbon dating in 2003. The facility has been continuously upgraded over the years with the installation of different beam lines for high energy ion implantation, IBA analyses both in vacuum and in air and nuclear microprobe. In 2011 a second AMS beamline was installed consisting of a dedicated high energy mass spectrometer for the AMS analysis of rare nuclides such as 10 Be, 26 Al, 129 I and actinides. First tests on 10 Be allowed to optimize the operating parameters resulting in the proper separation of 10 Be from the interfering isobar 10 B. In this paper we present the further tests and optimizations which resulted in an enhancement of the overall transmission efficiency, the reduction of the background (in the 10 15 range) and in the possibility to obtain precision levels in routine 10 Be/ 9 Be measurements of the order of 0.5%. Furthermore the first results obtained for the analysis of 26 Al and 129 I are also presented. Ó 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Centre for Dating and Diagnostics (CEDAD) was established at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy) in 2001 to be a national centre for the research and service in the field of AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) radiocarbon dating. Since then the centre has fully respected its initial mission becoming fully operational for routine AMS radiocarbon dating analysis in 2003 [1]. After more than 10 years the centre is very active in AMS radio- carbon dating with an increasing number of samples measured per year. In parallel its experimental and research capabilities have been continuously enhanced through the installation of new experimental beam lines and the opening to new research fields such as Environmental [2–4], Earth and Life [5,6], Material [7,8] and forensic sciences [9]. The facility is based on a 3 MV Tandetron accelerator (HVEE 4130HC) at which six experimental beam lines are connected dedicated to AMS radiocarbon dating, RBS (Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry)-Channeling, PIXE (Particle Induced X-ray Emission)–PIGE (Particle Induced Gamma Ray Emission) analysis in external beam mode, ion implantation, nuclear microprobe and the detection by AMS of rare nuclides other than 14 C. In particular the last beamline, installed in the frame of the Blu-Archeosys project funded by the Italian Ministry for Research, was designed to be a multipurpose and flexible line for the detection of different nuclides such as 10 Be, 26 Al, 129 I and, possibly, actinides. The main goal of the project was thus to extend the experimental capabilities of the facility in order to open new fields of applications in particular in Earth and Marine sciences, biomedicine and nuclear safeguards. The features of the new beam line, designed in collaboration with the Ion Beam Physics group at ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich, have been already presented [10] together with the first performance tests for the detection of 10 Be [11]. In this paper we present the results of further performance tests carried out on 10 Be, showing the achievable precision levels and the results obtained in the analysis of 26 Al and 129 I. 2. Experimental set-up The detailed description of the new high energy beam line has been reported in previous papers together with the modifications done to the existing part of the system (in particular low energy injector) [10,11]. The new high energy spectrometer is essentially formed by three dispersive elements: a 60° bending magnet, a 90° spherical ESA (Electrostatic analyzer) and a 135° magnet. All the dispersive elements have a bending radius of 1 m while the http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2015.02.065 0168-583X/Ó 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Engineering of Innovation, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy. Tel.: +39 0832 295050; fax: +39 0832 295058. E-mail address: lucio.calcagnile@unisalento.it (L. Calcagnile). Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nimb Please cite this article in press as: L. Calcagnile et al., The new AMS system at CEDAD for the analysis of 10 Be, 26 Al, 129 I and actinides: Set-up and perfor- mances, Nucl. Instr. Meth. B (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2015.02.065