Mainz 2017 – scientific programme
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MS: Fachverband Massenspektrometrie
MS 7: Poster
MS 7.13: Poster
Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 17:00–19:00, P OG1
The Heidelberg ArTTA: Expanding the ultimate limit of Trap Trace Analysis — •Zhongyi Feng1, Sven Ebser1, Lisa Ringena1, Andreas Kamrad1, Florian Nicolai1, Werner Aeschbach2, and Markus K. Oberthaler1 — 1Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 227, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. — 2Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 229, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
The high selectivity of many photon scattering processes in a Magneto-Optical Trap makes Trap Trace Analysis the state of the art detection technique for rare noble gas isotopes, where sample size is a limiting factor. Our Heidelberg Argon-39 Trap Trace Analysis (ArTTA) collaboration has improved this ultra-sensitive counting method below the 10−15 natural abundance level to fulfill the requirements for radiometric dating with Argon-39. With this poster, we will show the current status of the experiment and the prospects for measurements on a routine basis. The performance is mainly limited by the low count rate and further improvements require highly enriched Argon-39 samples with the drawback of contamination. This issue is addressed by a Optimizing Trap Trace Analysis (OpTTA) setup which can be operated independently from the main apparatus. We will discuss the possible improvements of the metastable source, advanced cooling mechanism and trapping schemes that can be investigated with OpTTA.