T04_P17

CEDAD at the University of Salento: twenty years of operations and new perspectives

Calcagnile L¹, D'Elia M¹, Maruccio L¹, Scrimieri L¹, Quarta G

¹CEDAD-University Of Salento, Lecce, Italy

The Centre for Applied Physics, Dating and Diagnostics (CEDAD) was established in 2001 at the University of Salento in Lecce to be a National Centre in Italy for radiocarbon dating by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. The Centre is based on a 3 MV TandetronTM accelerator manufactured by High Voltage Engineering Europa B.V.. The system initially equipped only with the ¹⁴C dating AMS beamline, has been  significantly updated over the years and in the frame of different projects with the installation of other five beamlines dedicated to IBA (Ion Beam Analysis) both in vacuum and in air, ion irradiation and nuclear microprobe. A dedicated, multipurpose beamline has been also designed and built in-house for the AMS detection of rare nuclides from 10B to actinides. From the instrumental point of view the last upgrade consisted in the installation of a hybrid (solid and gas) ion-source coupled with the AMS system and a IRMS spectrometer (Thermo Fischer Delta V Plus). Samples with masses in the microgram range are routinely measured for applications spanning from archaeological to environmental sciences. Recently the set-up has been further improved by the installation of a gas-bench interface allowing the analysis of DIC from water samples and carbonates. Application fields spanning from archaeology, forensics, Earth and marine sciences to the analysis of sample of industrial interest (such as bio-fuels and biopolymers) are also reviewed.