In our clean room laboratory for cosmogenic nuclides, we prepare approx. 250 samples per year, mainly for beryllium-10 (¹⁰Be). Applications of in situ ¹⁰Be in quartz make up a smaller part of this. Meteoric ¹⁰Be is becoming more and more popular!

In our specially designed metal-free clean laboratory, we perform experiments, prepare and purify rocks, soils, waters, vegetation and more for precise concentration and isotope-ratio measurements.

These laboratories allow the preparation of samples, such as drying, wet or dry sieving, magnetic separation, separation by means of color differences (“mineral sorter”), chemical separation steps (mainly used for quartz purification - e.g. by feldspar flotation with dodecylamine, with ortho-phosphoric acid, ultrasonic baths/hotdog rollers with weak hydrofluoric acid), as well as filtration, weighing, melting, dilution, etc.

With the ultrashort laser pulse length and UV range laser to achieve high-resolution in-situ micro-scale analyses of both isotope ratios and element concentrations.

The capacity to monitor up to nine isotope beams simultaneously at variable mass-resolution means the Neptune can yield highly precise isotope ratios for metals and metalloids across the whole periodic table.

With high sensitivity, large dynamic range and the capacity to resolve out molecular interferences, the Element 2 is well-suited to determine trace element concentrations in challenging matrices.

The iCAP Q can scan rapidly across multiple masses in a single analysis, and is equipped with a reaction cell to reduce polyatomic interferences, making it a workhorse for low-level element concentration analysis.

Depending on the composition of the samples, the ICP-OES from Spectro or the ICP-OES from Varian can be used to determine main and trace elements. The “Spectro” allows exceptional sensitivity and a high possible matrix load (e.g. salt samples) due to its radial plasma view as well as the DualSideOn interface and argon humidifier. The “Varian” has a better detection limit for many elements due to its axial plasma view.

(Almost) all types of sample material can be digested with the Multiwave at high pressures and high temperatures - with low blank values at the same time.

One of four worldwide iridium-strip-heater is located in our laboratory to create homogeneous glasses out of powder with short time and high temperature impact (~2000 °C).