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A Counter System for High-Precision 14C Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Ede Hertelendi ,
Éva Csongor ,
Laszlo Zaborszky ,
Jozsef Molnar ,
Janos Gal ,
Miklos Györffi  and
Sandor Nagy
Ede Hertelendi
Affiliation:
Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences PO Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
Éva Csongor
Affiliation:
Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences PO Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
Laszlo Zaborszky
Affiliation:
Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences PO Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
Jozsef Molnar
Affiliation:
Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences PO Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
Janos Gal
Affiliation:
Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences PO Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
Miklos Györffi
Affiliation:
Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences PO Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
Sandor Nagy
Affiliation:
Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences PO Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
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Abstract

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A multicounter radiocarbon dating system was developed applying the experiences of the previous one-channel low-level counting facility. The counter system consists of nine electrolytic copper proportional counters of identical diameters with sensitive volumes of 0.35–0.7dm3 and filled with either methane at high pressure (6 bar) or CO2 at 1 bar. The inner counters are surrounded by an anticoincidence shield consisting of five multiwire proportional flat counters filled with propane. The pulses of the detectors are handled by integrated amplifiers, discriminators and anticoincidence units interfaced to a microprocessor-controlled data evaluation unit. Software is written in BASIC using ASSEMBLER sub-routines. The overall precision of the system for modern carbon samples using high-pressure methane-filled counters (B ≍ 0.7 cpm, S ≍ 14 cpm) is better than 4 after a counting period of seven days.

Type
I. Sample Preparation and Measurement Techniques
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 31 , Issue 3: June 20-25, 1988 Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia , 1989 , pp. 399 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

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