The requirements for negative ion sources designed for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) are, e.g., a high and stable beam current, a high efficiency, a low memory effect, and a quick system for switching between different samples. For the AMS program at the Lund 3 MV Pelletron tandem accelerator a new caesium sputtering source was constructed and installed a few years ago. Some new mechanical features of the source, as well as tests of how well the requirements are fulfilled are reported. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.