MICADAS
Mini Carbon Dating System
Highest performance with Ionplus’ flagship AMS system: The Mini Carbon Dating System MICADAS is a true precision instrument for your ¹⁴C applications. With its permanent magnet and new design, the MICADAS is also the most energy efficient AMS in the world and has the lowest infrastructure requirements.
The first prototype of MICADAS was developed and built by the Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics at ETH Zurich in 2004. Since then more than 20 instruments have been built and delivered to customers worldwide. MICADAS has demonstrated highest performance and reliability and has become the new standard in ¹⁴C-AMS.
With its dimensions of only 3.2 m x 2.6 m x 2 m, MICADAS is the most compact commercially available ¹⁴C-AMS system in the world. Its helium stripping offers a very high transmission of up to 47 % and outstanding measurement stability, thus significantly reducing the need for retuning.
The MICADAS hybrid cesium sputter ion source is equipped with a random-access sample changer that holds up to 40 graphite or gas cathodes. Stable ion beam currents of 50 to 150 μA and 10 to 20 μA C- are readily achieved in routine operation with solid, liquid and gas samples, respectively.
The acceleration potential of 200 kV is provided by a solidstate power supply without any moving parts, the terminal is vacuum insulated – no SF₆ or other insulation gases are required. A state of the art gas ionization detector with low noise and virtually no degradation provides the most reliable detection of ¹⁴C ions. With this configuration, blanks older than 50‘000 radiocarbon years are readily obtained.
In conjunction with the Gas Interface System GIS, MICADAS performs fully automated gas measurements with an auto sampler, an Elemental Analyzer EA or CO₂ filled glass or quartz tubes. MICADAS is therefore also the most powerful choice for your small samples and high throughput applications.
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