First operation of the Bern AMS MICADAS

The University of Bern has a long history of experience in precise ¹⁴C measurements based on the conventional counting laboratory founded more than 50 years ago. Due to the demanding preparation and measurement procedures, the throughput and required carbon mass of this technique both are the limiting factors. Therefore, the University of Bern decided to update the facility aiming at a new ¹⁴C laboratory equipped with an accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) MICADAS. The focus of this laboratory is twofold. On the one hand, the access to routine ¹⁴C analysis for climate research and other disciplines will be improved on site. On the other hand, new hyphenated analytical systems shall be developed for online separation and ¹⁴C detection of specific fractions or individual compounds. The MICADAS became operational in November 2012. In this work, instruments, laboratory equipment, measures of quality assurance and first results are presented.