B+Accelerator+Mass+Spectrometer

=__Isotope and Radioactivity__= = = =Name of radioactive isotope/electromagnetic radiation/scientist: The Accelerator Mass Spectrometer uses electromagnetic energy to speed up ions and count them.= = = = = =Explanation of interesting facts: (how used/works.experiments/discoveries)=
 * 1) Speeds up ions to incredibly high kinetic energies.
 * 2) Detects long lived radio-isotopes such as BE-10, CL-36, AL-26, and C-14
 * 3) Negative ions are created and sped up by a number of accelerators, then go through a process of stripping (particles moving through a layer of foil to "strip" electrons off it) and are repelled out of the accelerator by a highly positive core and then are counted using the method of "single-ion counting."
 * 4) L.W. Alvarez and Robert Cornog were the first to use an accelerator as a mass spectrometer in 1939 to demonstrate that HE-3 was stable.
 * 5) AMS is used to determine the concentration of Carbon-14 by archaeologists.

=3 Advantages of using the radioactive isotope/radiation/benefits of discovery=

1. AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometer) outcompetes decay counting which is the process of determining how far an isotope has decayed.

2. Decay counting requires much larger samples than AMS.

3. The time is takes to get an accurate reading of Carbon-14 using AMS is much less than conventional decay counting.

=3 Disadvantages of using the radioactive isotope/radiation/discovery:= 1. Creating and maintaining an AMS system costs millions of dollars.

2. The control of contaminants in the small samples that are used is quite difficult.

3. Thorough pretreatment is required for the samples to be prepared for the process.

=Is the radioactive isotope/radiation/discovery still used today? Explain= Yes, AMS is used quite often today in Archaeology to replace the process of decay counting in things like carbon-14. AMS is also widely used in geology for surface exposure dating. Toxicology, Metabolite profiling, micro-dosing, and pharmacokinetics also use AMS.

=References= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerator_mass_spectrometry http://www.radiocarbon.eu/accelerator-mass-spectrometry.htm http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/McGrawHill/Encyclopedia/images/CE002750FG0010.gif

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