Dating water with trace analysis at the quantum limit (Conference Presentation)

General dating schemes rely on the radioactive decay of elements. For dating of water the isotope 39Ar is very interesting since it is inert and has a halflife of 265 years, with which is matches the natural timescales of underground and deep ocean circulation. Applying atom optical techniques we could demonstrate that this very rare isotope, which is 15 orders of magnitude less abundant than the stable isotope can be detect one by one.