Isotopic Analysis of 3He/4He by an Industrial EMG-20-8 Mass Spectrometer with Respect to Laboratory Units for Extracting 3He from Natural Helium

Abstract

An apparatus and method for isotopic analysis of ³He/⁴He for controlling the extraction of ³He from natural He were designed using a commercial industrial mass spectrometer. A modernized sample-injection system allowed the sample volume of rare and expensive gases for quantitative and isotopic analyses to be reduced by 3–5 orders of magnitude. The metrological characteristics of the developed analytical method including sampling and injection into the mass spectrometer were evaluated using model analyses of individual isotopes of Ar, Ne, and He.