14C research at the laboratory for the analysis of radiocarbon with AMS (LARA), University of Bern

Abstract

The Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA) at the University of Bern measures the radioactive carbon isotope 14C with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in different applications. Besides radiocarbon dating of environmental and archaeological samples, the LARA focuses on source apportionment of air-borne particulate matter (i.e. aerosols) as well as greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. This approach allows the identification and quantification of fossil carbon emissions in these air components, which is relevant for measures of air-quality improvement. The LARA furthermore develops instrumental setups for and at the AMS in order to analyze 14C samples in µg-amounts with low contamination and high throughput, preferably using online-hyphenated systems.