Particle Accelerators

Linear accelerators Circular accelerators

1. Electron gun 1. Cyclotron

2. Van de Graff Accelerator 2. Synchro – cyclotron or

3. Linear accelerator ( LINAC) Synchrotron

1. Electron gun

 Low- voltage power supply passes a very high current to the filament and heats up
the filament.
 This heats up the cathode and as a result, electrons are ejected from the cathode.
 Electrons that are ejected by heating are called as thermionic electrons.
 Using the high voltage power supply, these electrons are accelerated towards the
anode.
 Through the hole in the anode, some electrons pass onto the required target.

Disadvantages :
 Can accelerate electrons only up to energy of keV.

Note :
  Particle energies throughout the section are expressed in MeV or
 GeV (= 1000 MeV).
 Particle momenta and masses are expressed in MeV/c and MeVc 2 respectively
(or GeV/c and GeV/c2).
 Students are expected to know that mass can be converted to energy and vice
versa on a scale given by E = mc2.
 Students should also know that the total energy, E, of a particle of rest mass in,
which possesses kinetic energy K.E is equal to K.E = m0c2.
 For example, a proton accelerated from rest through a pd of 200 MV would
possess total energy equal to 1138 MeV and its mass would therefore be 1138
MeV/c2.
2. The Van de Graaff Accelerator

 This was invented by Van de Graaff at MIT in 1932.

  Charged particles are accelerated through potentials up to 20 MV to collide
with a fixed target.
 Beam currents up to 200 pA are possible.
 The maximum potential is limited by insulation failure and charge leakage through
corona discharge which is minimized by enclosing the apparatus in a steel chamber
containing air or nitrogen at pressures up to 1500 kPa (15 atmospheres).
 The device has been used to produce proton beams to study proton-proton
scattering and induced nuclear reactions.
3. The Linear Accelerator
 The Stanford linear accelerator in California is capable of accelerating electrons to 50
GeV.
 This accelerator accelerates the particles in a straight line.
 This consists of cylindrical electrodes which are connected to an alternating power
supply.
 So, they are alternatively positive and negative.
 The frequency of the potential difference is set so that as the particles emerge from
each electrode, they are accelerated across the gap.
 In the above diagram, a particle is moving from left to right.
 Cylindrical tubes are called drift tubes which act as electrodes.
 As the particles reach the end of the drift tube A, the potential difference between
A and A1 makes A1 positive relative to A.
 This creates an electric field from A1 to A.
 This field produces a constant force on the particle and it accelerates.
 As the particle travels through tube A1 it is in a region of constant potential
difference.
 It does not experience any force within the tube and its velocity remains constant.

 Accelerating voltage across the tube is arranged in such a way that by one time the
particle has reached end of A1, B becomes positive with respect to A1.
  Once again the particle experiences a constant force and accelerates.
 This process is repeated.
 All the way down the tubes, the particle is accelerated in a series of steps.
 To keep in step with the alternating potential difference, the particle must keep
same time to travel through to each tube.
 The particles get faster, the tube gets longer.
 Advantages
1.  This produces high intensity, well collimated beam.
2.  It is much easier to extract the beam than it is with a circular device such as a
cyclotron.
  Disadvantage
 1. This occupies large geographical area.

4. Cyclotron

 A source of proton (ionized hydrogen atoms) is placed at the centre of the ‘dees’.
 These ‘dees’ are  a semicircular flat metal boxes open at their diameter.
  These ‘dees’ are connected to a very high frequency alternating voltage(V) and
are situated in a strong vertical magnetic field indicated by the crosses.
  Working principle
 Some protons that emerge from the central source moving in a horizontal plane
enter D1.
 They follow semicircular path under the action of magnetic field when they next
arrive at the narrow gap between the’ dees’.
 They ‘see’ the opposite ‘dee’ to be with the negative potential and are accelerated
across the gap by  the electric field.
 They now  enter D2  with extra energy eV.
  They then continue in a second semi circle at a higher speed because radius is
greater and arrives back at the gap  to see  D1 to be at a negative potential because
the voltage supplied is alternating at the right frequency. 
 This frequency is equal to the frequency of the circulation of the proton.
 Extra energy ‘eV ‘  is again added and this continues as the radius of the proton’s
path increases.
 As the acceleration increases, the momentum of the particle and the radius of the
path increase.
 Now the particle  is steadily spiraling outwards  until it emerges from an exit  hole.
 Then it hits  the target  placed in a bombardments chamber in its path.
 The force on a moving charged particle in a magnetic field is given by F = Bqv.
 Since this provides the centripetal force
Bqv = mv2/r
 Therefore, v = Bqr/m
 This shows that  v ∝ r
 So, as the particles get faster they spiral outwards.
 The time taken to travel along its semi circular path within each’ dee’ is given by
t = d/v
t = 𝞹r ÷ (Bqr/m)
t = 𝞹m/Bq [ B, q and m are constants.
 This time is independent of v and r. 
 It depends on the  charge to mass ratio. ( q/m).
  As the protons are accelerated, they move into a path  with a greater radius.
 So, it takes the same amount of time to complete the path.
 So, the alternating potential difference  must reverse  every  𝞹m/Bq seconds.
(Therefore, the switching frequency is Bq/𝞹m.)
5. Synchro – cyclotron or Synchrotron
 The frequency of rotation  does not depend on the speed of the particle.
 It depends only on B, q and m all of which are fixed for a particle less than the
speed of light.
 Einstein’s theory of special relativity describes that as the object get faster, they get
heavier.
 This effect is only noticeable at speeds close to the speed of light.
 The top speed of a particle in a cyclotron is limited by this relativistic increase in
mass.
 Change in mass would affect the time taken to travel through a ‘dee’.
 The particle would then get out of step with the alternating potential difference.
 One way to overcome the problem caused by relativistic increase in mass of
particles is that when they accelerate, change the frequency of the alternating
potential difference used in the cyclotron.
 This can be slowly decreased as the kinetic energy of the particles increases.
 A machine used for this is called synchro - cyclotron or synchrotron.
 Cyclotrons are used to accelerate heavy particles such as protons and Alpha
particles.
 These can reach energies of about 25MeV.
Disadvantage
 It requires a large area over which a uniform magnetic field must be applied in
order to allow the charged particles to spiral outwards as their energy increases.