Curtin University of Technology
Skip to content
Link to Curtin homepage
Curtin Applied Physics

Isotope Science

Mass spectrometers can be used to measure the abundances of elements and isotopes, in a wide range of gaseous, liquid and solid samples. These results can be used in a surprising number of applications in geology, chemistry, health, nuclear and environmental physics, and astronomy and astrophysics.

Applied Physics Professors Kevin Rosman and John de Laeter are major contributors to this research group which is part of a state wide collective of scientists that make up the John de Laeter Centre for Mass Spectrometry (JdLCMS).

The principal groups within JdLCMS are from the

Collaborative research programs are also underway with a number of universities, companies and organizations including the Garvin Institute, University of Grenoble, Australian Antarctic Survey and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Isotope Science research investigates such diverse topics as age determination of Western Australian rock and minerals, lead pollution in the environment, mineralization processes, the constituents of lunar rocks, and the concentrations of impurities in Antarctic ice. One of the achievements of the group has been to measure the atomic weights of some elements more accurately than ever before.

The main JdLCMS facilities associated with the Discipline of Applied Physics include the mass spectrometers (TIMS & SHRIMP) located in laboratories within the Building 301.

Some of the samples, such as Antarctic ice, analysed by the TIMS mass spectrometers have such low concentrations of the element of interest that it is very easy to contaminate these samples during preparation. To prevent this requires the use of special ultra-clean laboratories within which special procedures and chemicals are used to process these types of samples.

The SHRIMP instrument is Australian designed and made, and is capable of making isotopic measurements and geological age determination on individual mineral grains. For more information you can access the John de Laeter Centre for Mass Spectrometry web site.