Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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236U accelerator mass spectrometry with a time-of-flight and energy detection system

  • Li Zheng (Department of Nuclear Engineering and Management, The University of Tokyo) ;
  • Hiroyuki Matsuzaki (Department of Nuclear Engineering and Management, The University of Tokyo) ;
  • Takeyasu Yamagata (Department of Nuclear Engineering and Management, The University of Tokyo)
  • Received : 2022.04.27
  • Accepted : 2022.07.21
  • Published : 2022.12.25
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Abstract

A time-of-flight and energy (TOF-E) detection system for the measurement of 236U accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has been developed to improve the 236U/238U sensitivity at Micro Analysis Laboratory, Tandem accelerator (MALT), The University of Tokyo. With observing TOF distribution of 235U, 236U and 238U, this TOF-E detection system has clearly separated 236U from the interference of 235U and 238U when measuring three kinds of uranium standards. In addition, we have developed a novel method combining kernel-based density estimation method and multi-Gaussian fitting method to estimate the 236U/238U sensitivity of the TOF-E detection system. Using this new estimation method, 3.4 × 10-12 of 236U/238U sensitivity and 1.9 ns of time resolution are obtained. 236U/238U sensitivity of TOF-E detection system has improved two orders of magnitude better than that of previous gas ionization chamber. Moreover, unknown species other than uranium isotopes were also observed in the measurement of a surface soil sample, which has demonstrated that TOF-E detection system has a higher sensitivity in particle identification. With its high sensibility in mass determination, this TOF-E detection system could also be used in other heavy isotope AMS.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We appreciate the assistance from Dr. Peter Steier (VERA) and Dr. Michael Hotchkis (ANSTO) for developing the TOF-E detection system.

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