PARTICLE ACCELERATORS

A particle accelerator is a machine that accelerates elementary particles, such as electrons or

protons, to very high energies. On a basic level, particle accelerators produce beams of charged
particles that can be used for a variety of research purposes
Types of accelerators
Particle accelerators come in two basic types:
• Circular - Particles travel around in a circle until they collide with the target.
• Linear - Particles travel down a long, straight track and collide with the target.

1. The Cyclotron
Principle
A charged particle can be accelerated to very high energies by making it pass through an
electric field a number of times. So if question comes whether a neutron can be accelerated
or not and the answer is” no” since neutron is chargeless.
This can be done with the help of a perpendicular magnetic field which throws the charged
particle into a circular motion, the frequency of which does not depend on the speed of the
particle and the radius of the circular orbit.
Thus electric field is used to accelerate in a translational manner and magnetic field is it
used to make the charge particle to go it in a circular path.
Below are the two figures of it. Left is a schematic diagram and right is 60-inch cyclotron
at Berkeley’s Rad Lab. Ernest Lawrence is second from the left if you can figure him out.

Construction
• It consists of two small, hollow, metallic half-cylinders D1 and D2 called dees as they are in the
shape of D which are put back to back.
• They are mounted inside a vacuum chamber (the whole device is in high vacuum (pressure ∼10−6
mm of Hg) so that the air molecules may not collide with the charged particles) between the poles
of a powerful electromagnet.
• The dees are connected to the source of high frequency alternating voltage of few hundred kVs
(depending upon your need). Thus theses dees are acting as electrodes.
• The beam of charged particles to be accelerated is injected into the dees near their centre, in a
plane perpendicular to the magnetic field.
• The charged particles are pulled out of the dees by a deflecting plate through a window to collide
with the target.

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Theory
Suppose a positive ion, say a proton, enters the gap between the two dees and finds dee D1 to be
negative. It gets accelerated towards dee D1. As it enters the dee D1, it does not experience any
electric field due to shielding effect of the metallic dee. The perpendicular magnetic field throws
it into a circular path. At the instant the proton comes out of dee D1, it finds dee D1 positive and
dee D2. It moves faster through D2 describing a larger semicircle than before. Thus if the frequency
of the applied voltage is kept exactly the same as the frequency of revolution of the proton, then
every time the proton reaches the gap between the two dees, the electric field is reversed and proton
receives a push and finally it acquires very high energy. This is called the cyclotrons resonance
condition. The proton follows a spiral path. The accelerated proton is ejected through a window
by a deflecting voltage and hits the target. Let a particle of charge q and mass m enter a region of
  
magnetic field B with a velocity V normal to the field B . The particle follows a circular path of
radius r, the necessary centripetal force begin provided by the magnetic field. Therefore,

Clearly, this frequency is independent of both the velocity of the particle and the radius of the orbit
and is called cyclotron frequency or magnetic resonance frequency. This is the key fact which is
made use of in the operation of a cyclotron. Thus as the beam spirals out, the frequency doesn’t
decrease and it must continue to accelerate as it is travelling more and more distance at the same
time. As the beam spirals out and thus acquiring higher and higher velocities just before coming
out the dees it attains the maximum velocity and thus with maximum kinetic energy.
Hence,

Utility
• The high energy particles produced in a cylinder are used to bombard nuclei and study the
resulting nuclear reactions and hence investigate nuclear structure.

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• It is used to implant ions into solids and modify their properties or even synthesis new materials.
• It is used to produce radioactive isotopes which are used in hospitals for diagnosis and treatment.
Drawbacks
• The significant drawback that the cyclotron suffers is from the effect of relativistic mass.
According to the Einsteins special theory of relativity, the mass of a particle increases with the
increase in its velocity as

Where m0 is the rest mass of the particle. At high velocities, the cyclotron frequency will decrease
due to increase in mass. This will throw the particles out of resonance with the oscillating field.
That is, as the ions reach the gap between the dees, the polarity of the dees is not reversed at that
instant. Consequently, the ions are not accelerated further. That’s a serious thing people are
concerned with.
• Electrons cannot be accelerated in a cyclotron. A large increase in their energy increases their
velocity to a very large extent. This throws the electrons out of step with the oscillating field.

2. The Linear Accelerator: LINAC

Principle
This type of particle accelerator that imparts a series of relatively small increases in energy to
subatomic particles as they pass through a sequence of alternating electric fields set up in some
hollow tubes of variable lengths arranged in a linear manner. The small accelerations acquired by
particles gets added together each time they come out of the tube to give rise to a greater energy
than could be achieved by the voltage used in one tube alone.
Construction
The exact design of a LINAC depends on the type of the particle that is being accelerated:
electrons, protons or ions. But the basic necessities are the following
• A particle gun is located at the left in the drawing. If the particle is e− then a cold cathode or a
hot cathode or a photodiode is placed. For protons an ion source is needed. If heavier particles are
to be accelerated (e.g. Uranium ions) a specialized ion source is placed.
• A high voltage source is required to emit particles out of the particle gun ie for initial injection
of particles.
• Hollow evacuated cylindrical tubes, also called as drift tubes are used to accelerate the particles
which are coming out of the particle gun and also pack them into bunches. Thus these tubes are
also sometimes called as buncher. However the lengths will vary with the application.
• A radio frequency energy source is needed to energize the cylindrical tubes which will then
behave as electrodes so that particles can accelerate.

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Theory
Particles are kicked by a radio-frequency alternating electric fields that are applied over short
distances which is applied between the drift tubes (across the gap between them). As the particles
leave a tube there must be an accelerating field across the gap so the tube it is in must be of the
same potential as the particle’s charge (repelling it away from where it has come from) and the
one it is about to enter be of the opposite potential (attracting it towards the next tube).
However, inside the tube the particles do not feel any force because of effect called as Faraday’s
cage which states that electric charge on a conductor sits on the outer surface of it or electric field
inside a conductor is always zero. (That’s why you should not come out of car while driving during
thunderstorm). The passage of the particle between drift tubes is synchronized with the phase of
the accelerating field - the particle is only subjected to the field when it is in the part of the cycle
that accelerates it. In other, words the time required for particles to pass through any tube is exactly
made equal with frequency of the polarity reversal of the field.
Let a particle of charge q and mass m enter a region of electric field where the particle is accelerated
by a potential V. Now the kinetic energy acquired by the particle i

But this amount of KE will be attained only in gaps between the tubes. Inside the tube the KE will
remain fixed as the tube will serve as Faraday’s cage. If there are n numbers of such tubes between
each gap that much amount of KE will be added every time. Thus after passing through n tubes
the KE will increase to a larger extent. Let vn is the vel. after the nth tube.
Then

Utility
• In the linac, the particles are accelerated multiple times by the applied voltage and hence used to
study matter antimatter annihilation and in production of radio-isotope used in medical purposes.
• Linac-based radiation therapy is used in cancer therapy and in treatment of benign and malignant
disease.
Drawbacks
• The device length limits the locations where one may be placed.
• A great number of devices and their associated power supplies are required, increasing the
construction and maintenance expense of this portion.

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LINAC vs Cyclotron