Particle Accelerators

​Particle Accelerators

produce beams of charged particles with the following characteristics
-energies from a few MeV to GeV
-beams of various particle intensities (10¹⁶ particles per second)
-beams can be focussed on an area of a few mm²

​4 major components

(1) A source which produces the charged particles.

(2) A composite device to add energy to the particles and speed them up by applying a static or an oscillating electric field;

(3) A sequence of metallic tubes in vacuum to allow the particles to move freely in without colliding with air molecules or dust which can dissipate the beam;

(4) A system of electromagnets to steer and focus the beam particles or change their trajectories before being bombarded on a target sample.

By 1930s, it was evident that a particles increased towards relativistic velocities, their rest masses increased. This then caused changes to the resonant magnetic fields which became a problem.
Two approaches were then taken:
1. synchrocyclotrons which held the magnetic field constant but decreased the accelerating frequency
2. isochronous cyclotrons which held the accelerating frequencies constant, but changed the magnetic field