An overview of NRL's NAUTILUS: a combination SIMS-AMS for spatially resolved trace isotope analysis

Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry
Evan GroopmanK S Grabowski

Abstract

We present a description of the capabilities and performance of the NAval Ultra-Trace Isotope Laboratory's Universal Spectrometer (NAUTILUS) at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The NAUTILUS combines secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and single-stage accelerator mass spectrometry (SSAMS) into a single unified instrument for spatially resolved trace element and isotope analysis. The NAUTILUS instrument is essentially a fully functional SIMS instrument with an additional molecule-filtering detector, the SSAMS. The combination of these two techniques mitigates the drawbacks of each and enables new measurement paradigms for SIMS-like microanalysis. Highlighted capabilities include molecule-free raster ion imaging for direct spatially resolved analysis of heterogeneous materials with or without perturbed isotopic compositions. The NAUTILUS' sensitivity to trace elements is at least 10× better than commercial SIMS instruments due to near-zero background conditions. We describe the design and construction of the NAUTILUS, and its performance applied to topics in nuclear materials analysis, cosmochemistry, and geochemistry.

References

Nov 5, 2004·Physical Review Letters·A P MeshikO V Pravdivtseva
Jun 20, 2017·Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry·David S Simons, John D Fassett
Aug 15, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Evan E GroopmanOlga V Pravdivtseva

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Citations

Jun 20, 2020·Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry·David WillinghamLaure Sangely

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Software Mentioned

MICADAS
PITL
SHRIMP
LabVIEW Integration Toolkit for LabVIEW ( PITL
SRIM
RG
SIMION
house
NanoSIMS
TRIM

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