Developments towards a fully automated AMS system

The possibilities of computer-assisted and automated accelerator mass spect rometry (AMS) measurements were explored. The goal of these efforts is to d evelop fully automated procedures for "routine" measurements at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), a dedicated 3-MV Pelletron tande m AMS facility. As a new tool for automatic tuning of the ion optics we dev eloped a multi-dimensional optimization algorithm robust to noise, which wa s applied for C-14 and Be-10. The actual isotope ratio measurements are per formed in a fully automated fashion and do not require the presence of an o perator. Incoming data are evaluated online and the results can be accessed via Internet. The system was used for C-14,Be-10,Al-26 and I-129 measureme nts. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.