Dear friends, this morning, I received real great news from Max Doebeli (ETH Zuerich) about first successful sample analysis of our protium and reference samples! The measurements were performed on one of the new (smaller) accelerators built for isotope analyses throughout the world. A special ion source was constructed giving extremely low backgrounds of hydrogen ions from walls, etc. The walls are continuously sputtered to keep the background low allowing measurements during 2 hours. The existence of the zero sample from the H/D separator turned out to be crucial, since the accelerator gives a different background if the ion source is not fed with hydrogen gas. In a first round, the zero protium sample, the 2005-protium gas and the standard reference hydrogen gas (136.14+-0.04 ppm) was measured yesterday. The results are as follows: - sensitivity 0.14 ppm (corresponding to 50 femto Amperes) - zero protium sample: < 0.14 ppm - 2005 protium sample: 1.45 +- 0.14 ppm see attached pdf file (written in German). In the future (probably next month), Max Doebeli will also be able to measure the 2004 protium sample (which should have about the same content as the 2005 sample) and all the enriched samples from the H/D separation - and both, our past and future sample of regular hydrogen. Fortunately, the enriched samples are considerably easier (quicker) to measure. Already now, we can conclude that above result strongly corroborates the deuterium analysis result presented yesterday by Steven. Congratulations! With best regards Claude
Attachment:
Protium_Resultate_Doebeli_APR25-06.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document