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An atom trap system for practical 81Kr dating

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 75, 3224 (2004); doi:10.1063/1.1790562

Published 20 September 2004

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X. Du
Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 and Physics Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208

K. Bailey, Z.-T. Lu, P. Mueller, and T. P. O'Connor
Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439

L. Young
Chemistry Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439
81Kr (t1/2 = 2.3×105  yr,  81Kr/Kr~6×10–13) is a long-lived cosmogenic isotope, which is ideal for dating old groundwater and ice in the age range of 50,000 years to 1 million years. Here, we describe the apparatus and performance of an atom-counting system for practical 81Kr dating. This system is based upon the atom trap trace analysis method that was first demonstrated in 1999. Since then, significant improvements have been made to increase the system efficiency and to reduce the required krypton sample size. For a modern krypton gas sample of 100  µl STP, which contains 1.2×106 81Kr atoms, the system can accumulate approximately 240 81Kr counts in 20  h, thereby reaching a counting efficiency of 2×10–4. Detailed studies have been conducted to characterize the performance of this system. This system has been calibrated with a low-level counting method and has been used for 81Kr dating of ancient groundwater from the Nubian Aquifer (Egypt). It can also be used to measure the isotopic abundance of a fission-produced isotope 85Kr (t1/2 = 10.76  year,85Kr/Kr~2×10–11). ©2004 American Institute of Physics
History: Received 27 February 2004; accepted 6 July 2004; published 20 September 2004
Permalink: http://link.aip.org/link/?RSINAK/75/3224/1
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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords
PACS
  • 29.25.Rm
    Sources of radioactive nuclei
  • 06.20.Fn
    Measurement units and standards
  • 32.70.Cs
    Atomic oscillator strengths, lifetimes, transition moments
  • 32.10.Bi
    Atomic masses, mass spectra, abundances, and isotopes
  • 32.80.Pj
    Optical cooling of atoms; trapping
  • 42.50.Vk
    Mechanical effects of light on atoms, molecules, electrons, and ions
  • YEAR: 2004

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PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:
0034-6748 (print)   1089-7623 (online)
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REFERENCES (14)
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