STAR

ANSTO's Tandetron Small Tandem Accelerator for Research (STAR) is primarily used for ion beam analysis (IBA) and 14C accelerated mass spectrometry (AMS). It can produce a wide range of light and medium heavy ions, with energies from a few hundreds of keV to tens of MeV depending on the charge state of the ion.

STAR1 

2MV HVEE Tandetron accelerator tank

Applications

Surface and bulk analysis of solid state materials, environmental pollution monitoring, archaeological artefact elemental determinations, studies of pigment composition in paintings, biological studies using tracer elements and studies of geological material, as well as basic nuclear physics. The STAR accelerator also has an AMS 14C beam line used for routine radio carbon measurements.

STAR2

IBA beam lines 1 and 2

Support Services and Facilities

Operation of facility, data acquisition and analysis, sample preparation, design and installation of custom target station facilities.

Facilities on STAR:

  • Broad beam IBA facility - Target chamber and data collection facility for simultaneous proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), proton-induced gamma-ray emission (PIGE) and Rutherford backscattering (RBS). The sample holder can take up to 60 samples in vacuum and measurement of samples is automated.
  • Multi-Angle Detector Positioning System - XYZ Target Manipulator - UHV target chamber with charged particle detectors for depth profile measurements of light elements such as hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, using forward recoil and nuclear reaction techniques. These are used for measurement of water turnover in desert lizards using 18O as a biological tracer, depth profiling of ion implanted species in semiconductors.
  • 14C AMS measurements - 846 HVEE multisample (58) positions Cs sputtering negative ion source, simutaneous injection of all three major carbon isotopes 12C, 13C and 14C with the help of the recombinator, simultaneous measurement of 14C/12C and 13C/12C ratios with Bragg gas filled ion detector and Faraday cups, high energy ion selection with two magnets and electrostatic analyser, allowing machine background in 14C/12C better than 1*10-16, measurements precision is up to 0.3%. System is used for radiocarbon determinations in a wide variety of samples: from archaeological and geochronological to climate change tracers' studies, atmospheric, glaciological, forensic, etc.

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