The laboratory houses a 2000 GV Instruments IsoProbe multicollector ICP-MS and there is a suite of linked clean laboratories for sample preparation, including three PicoTrace clean-air hoods. The IsoProbe has nine movable Faraday cups, a Daly detector, and two adjustable channletron multipliers at low mass. Input to the plasma is via an Aridus II desolvating nebulizer or the Resonetics laser ablation system directed by Dr Wolfgang Müller.
The IsoProbe is used primarily in solution mode, and the main applications currently in use include:
- High-accuracy Pb isotope analysis using double-spike mass bias correction
- U-Pb geochronology of carbonates
- Hf isotope analysis of rocks
- Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd garnet geochronology
- Rb by isotope dilution for Rb-Sr mica geochronology
- REE, Zr/Hf and Ba, Rb, K by isotope dilution
For typical precision and accuracy data please see the links section.
The laboratory is available for in-house, collaborative and commercial use, and costs depend on the type of analysis, the degree to which the user wants to be involved, and whether the work is collaborative or commercial.
Related publications, typical precision and accuracy data is available via the following links: