Preliminary AMS measurements of ¹⁰Be at the CENTA facility

Very sensitive methods, presently mainly accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) are necessary for analysis of cosmogenic ¹⁰Be in the environment. AMS is mainly limited by the stable isobar ¹⁰B, while the requirements for mass separation are the least stringent of all standard isotopes analyzed by AMS. We tested a possibility to measure ¹⁰Be using a small switching magnet as an analyzer of accelerated ions, and an ionization chamber with a silicon nitride foil stack used as a passive absorber. A detection limit of 10⁻¹² for the ¹⁰Be/⁹Be isotopic ratio was obtained using this technique, which was mainly determined by scattering of ⁹Be⁺² ions on residual gas inside the switching magnet.