Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility (BRAMS)

BRAMS is a new state-of-the-art radiocarbon dating facility at the University of Bristol. Jointly based in the Schools of Chemistry and Arts, BRAMS provides a radiocarbon dating service to both University of Bristol researchers and to external academic and commercial users.

We are home to one of a new generation of ultra-compact AMS instruments, a MICADAS accelerator mass spectrometer, designed and built at ETH, Zurich. The MICADAS is a high-precision, high throughput instrument and is capable of determining radiocarbon dates on both traditional graphite targets and CO₂ (via a gas interface system). This capability allows radiocarbon dates to be measured on much smaller samples than would be the case with graphite, opening the door for many new exciting applications.‌