Mikael Elfman
Researcher
Preliminary results of oxygen isotope ratio measurement with a particle-gamma coincidence method
Author
Summary, in English
The possibility to study variations in the oxygen isotopic ratio with photon tagged nuclear reaction analysis (pNRA) is evaluated in the current work. The experiment described in the article was performed at Lund Ion Beam Analysis Facility (LIBAF) with a 2 MeV deuteron beam. Isotopic fractionation of light elements such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen is the basis of many analytical tools in hydrology, geology, paleobiology and paleogeology. IBA methods provide one possible tool for measurement of isotopic content. During this experimental run we focused on measurement of the oxygen isotopic ratio. The measurement of stable isotopes of oxygen has a number of applications; the particular one driving the current investigation belongs to the field of astrogeology and specifically evaluation of fossil extraterrestrial material. There are three stable isotopes of oxygen; O-16, O-17 and O-18. We procured samples highly enriched with all three isotopes. Isotopes O-16 and O-18 were easily detected in the enriched samples, but no significant signal from O-17 was detected in the same samples. The measured yield was too low to detect O-18 in a sample with natural abundances of oxygen isotopes, at least in the current experimental setup, but the spectral line from the reaction with O-16 was clearly visible. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Department/s
- Nuclear physics
Publishing year
2015
Language
English
Pages
269-272
Publication/Series
Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Volume
348
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Geology
- Physical Sciences
Keywords
- Nuclear reaction analysis
- Geology
- IBA
- Microbeam
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0168-583X