This award will provide one-half the funding necessary to install a position-sensitive detector as a multiple collector in the ion microprobe operated in the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago is committed to providing the remaining funds needed for the project. The installation of the new detector is estimated to result in a 50-fold increase in the efficiency with which the trace concentration of rare-earth elements can be measured. The PI, faculty colleagues and graduate students at Chicago make use of the ion microprobe for spatially resolved (on the order of tens of micrometers) analyses of trace elements and isotopes in rock, mineral and extraterrestrial samples. Their research is aimed at a better understanding of the origin of the solar system and the Earth.
