Developments towards a fully automated AMS system

Abstract The possibilities of computer-assisted and automated accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements were explored. The goal of these efforts is to develop fully automated procedures for “routine” measurements at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), a dedicated 3-MV Pelletron tandem AMS facility. As a new tool for automatic tuning of the ion optics we developed a multi-dimensional optimization algorithm robust to noise, which was applied for 14C and 10Be. The actual isotope ratio measurements are performed in a fully automated fashion and do not require the presence of an operator. Incoming data are evaluated online and the results can be accessed via Internet. The system was used for 14C, 10Be, 26Al and 129I measurements.