Natasha is a PhD student from the Botswana International University of Science and Technology. She will do a practical training program in accelerator technology which is funded by the IAEA sandwich PhD fellowship.
Her study is based on exposure dating of chlorine isotopes from calcium sulfate sediments/evaporites for isotopic ratio measurements using AMS to date land surfaces that have been exposed to cosmic rays. Cosmogenic nuclide dating allows for geochronological insight and reveals information about desert histories, land denudation/soil erosion rates, and cosmic ray events. For precise isotopic ratio measurements of chlorine, suppression of its interfering isobar sulfur, which is a contaminant of the radioactive ion beam, is required. This is achieved through a) chemical means of dissolving gypsum & removing the sulfur to obtain an AgCI target and b) utilization of a laser beam collinearly so that there is element-selective photodetachment using our new ALIS setup. The IAEA sandwich PhD fellowship makes possible this new partnership of Botswana International University of Science & Technology and the University of Cologne. Welcome Natasha, great to have you on our team!
