Cyclotron

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Cyclotron (disambiguation).

A French cyclotron, produced in Zurich,Switzerland in 1937

A modern cyclotron for radiation therapy

A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator in which charged particles accelerate outwards from the center
along a spiral path. The particles are held to a spiral trajectory by a static magnetic field and accelerated by
a rapidly varying (radio frequency) electric field.

Contents

History[edit]

The cyclotron was invented and patented[1] by Ernest Lawrence of the University of California, Berkeley,
where it was first operated in 1932.[2] A graduate student, M. Stanley Livingston, did much of the work of
translating the idea into working hardware.[3] Lawrence read an article about the concept of a drift
tube linac by Rolf Widerøe,[4][5] who had also been working along similar lines with the betatron concept.
The first European cyclotron was constructed in Leningrad in the physics department of the Radium
Institute, headed by Vitaly Khlopin (ru). This instrument was first proposed in 1932 by George
Gamow and Lev Mysovskii (ru) and was installed and became operative by 1937.[6][7]
Principle of operation[edit]

Diagram of cyclotron operation from Lawrence's 1934 patent. The "D" shapedelectrodes are enclosed in a flat vacuum
chamber, which is installed in a narrow gap between the two poles of a large magnet.

Beam of electrons moving in a circle. Lighting is caused by excitation of gas atoms in a bulb.

Sketch of a particle being accelerated in a cyclotron, and being ejected through abeamline.

Cyclotrons accelerate charged particle beams using a high frequency alternating voltage which is applied
between two "D"-shaped electrodes (also called "dees"). An additional static magnetic field is applied in
perpendicular direction to the electrode plane, enabling particles to re-encounter the accelerating voltage
many times at the same phase.[1] To achieve this, the voltage frequency must match the particle's cyclotron
resonancefrequency

with the relativistic mass m and its charge q. This frequency is given by equality of centripetal
force and magnetic Lorentz force. The particles, injected near the centre of the magnetic field, increase
their kinetic energy only when recirculating through the gap between the electrodes; thus they travel
outwards along a spiral path. Their radius will increase until the particles hit a target at the perimeter of
the vacuum chamber, or leave the cyclotron using a beam tube, enabling their use e.g. for particle
therapy. Various materials may be used for a target, and the collisions will create secondary particles
which may be guided outside of the cyclotron and into instruments for analysis.

Relativistic considerations[edit]
In the nonrelativistic approximation, the frequency does not depend upon the radius of the particle's
orbit, since the particle's mass is constant. As the beam spirals out, its frequency does not decrease,
and it must continue to accelerate, as it is travelling a greater distance in the same time period. In
contrast to this approximation, as particles approach the speed of light, their relativistic
mass increases, requiring either modifications to the frequency, leading to the synchrocyclotron, or
modifications to the magnetic field during the acceleration, which leads to the isochronous cyclotron.
The relativistic mass can be rewritten as

where

is the particle rest mass,

is the relative velocity, and

is the Lorentz factor.

The relativistic cyclotron frequency and angular frequency can be rewritten as

, and

where

would be the cyclotron frequency in classical approximation,

would be the cyclotron angular frequency in classical approximation.

The gyroradius for a particle moving in a static magnetic field is

then given by

because
 where v would be the (linear) velocity.

Synchrocyclotron[edit]
Main article: Synchrocyclotron

A synchrocyclotron is a cyclotron in which the frequency

of the driving RF electric field is varied to compensate for
relativistic effects as the particles' velocity begins to
approach the speed of light. This is in contrast to the
classical cyclotron, where the frequency was held
constant, thus leading to the synchrocyclotron operation
frequency being

where is the classical cyclotron frequency

and again is the relative velocity of the

particle beam. The rest mass of an electron is
511 keV/c2, so the frequency correction is 1% for a
magnetic vacuum tube with a 5.11 keV/c2 direct
current accelerating voltage. The proton mass is
nearly two thousand times the electron mass, so the
1% correction energy is about 9 MeV, which is
sufficient to induce nuclear reactions.

Isochronous cyclotron[edit]
An alternative to the synchrocyclotron is
the isochronous cyclotron, which has a magnetic
field that increases with radius, rather than with
time. Isochronous cyclotrons are capable of
producing much greater beam current than
synchrocyclotrons, but require azimuthal variations
in the field strength to provide a strong
focusing effect and keep the particles captured in
their spiral trajectory. For this reason, an
isochronous cyclotron is also called an "AVF
(azimuthal varying field) cyclotron".[8] This solution
for focusing the particle beam was proposed by L.
H. Thomas in 1938.[8]Recalling the
relativistic gyroradius and the

relativistic cyclotron frequency , one can

choose to be proportional to the Lorentz
factor, . This results in the

relation which again only depends on

the velocity , like in the non-relativistic case. Also,
the cyclotron frequency is constant in this case.

The transverse de-focusing effect of this radial field

gradient is compensated by ridges on the magnet
faces which vary the field azimuthally as well. This
allows particles to be accelerated continuously, on
every period of the radio frequency (RF), rather than
in bursts as in most other accelerator types. This
principle that alternating field gradients have a net
focusing effect is calledstrong focusing. It was
obscurely known theoretically long before it was put
into practice.[9] Examples of isochronous cyclotrons
abound; in fact almost all modern cyclotrons use
azimuthally-varying fields. The TRIUMF cyclotron
mentioned below is the largest with an outer orbit
radius of 7.9 metres, extracting protons at up to
510 MeV, which is 3/4 of the speed of light. The PSI
cyclotron reaches higher energy but is smaller
because of using a higher magnetic field.

Usage[edit]

For several decades, cyclotrons were the best

source of high-energy beams for nuclear
physics experiments; several cyclotrons are still in
use for this type of research. The results enable the
calculation of various properties, such as the mean
spacing between atoms and the creation of various
collision products. Subsequent chemical and particle
analysis of the target material may give insight
into nuclear transmutation of the elements used in
the target.
Cyclotrons can be used in particle therapy to
treat cancer. Ion beams from cyclotrons can be
used, as in proton therapy, to penetrate the body
and kill tumors by radiation damage, while
minimizing damage to healthy tissue along their
path. Cyclotron beams can be used to bombard
other atoms to produce short-lived positron-emitting
isotopes suitable for PET imaging. More recently
cyclotrons currently installed at hospitals for particle
therapy have been retrofitted to enable them to
produce technetium-99.[10] Technetium-99 is a
diagnostic isotope in short supply due to difficulties
at Canada's Chalk River facility.

Advantages and limitations[edit]

60-inch cyclotron, circa 1939, showing a beam of

accelerated ions (likely protons or deuterons)
escaping the accelerator and ionizing the surrounding
air causing a blue glow

The cyclotron was an improvement over the linear

accelerators (linacs) that were available when it was
invented, being more cost- and space-effective due
to the iterated interaction of the particles with the
accelerating field. In the 1920s, it was not possible
to generate the high power, high-frequency radio
waves which are used in modern linacs (generated
by klystrons). As such, impractically long linac
structures were required for higher-energy particles.
The compactness of the cyclotron reduces other
costs as well, such as foundations, radiation
shielding, and the enclosing building. Cyclotrons
have a single electrical driver, which saves both
money and power. Furthermore, cyclotrons are able
to produce a continuous stream of particles at the
target, so the average power passed from a particle
beam into a target is relatively high.

The magnet portion of a 27" cyclotron. The grey

object is the upper pole piece, routing the magnetic
field in two loops through a similar part below. The
white canisters held conductive coils to generate the
magnetic field. The D electrodes are contained in a
vacuum chamber that was inserted in the central field
gap.

The spiral path of the cyclotron beam can only "sync

up" with klystron-type (constant frequency) voltage
sources if the accelerated particles are
approximately obeying Newton's Laws of Motion. If
the particles become fast enough
that relativistic effects become important, the beam
becomes out of phase with the oscillating electric
field, and cannot receive any additional acceleration.
The classical cyclotron is therefore only capable of
accelerating particles up to a few percent of the
speed of light. To accommodate increased mass the
magnetic field may be modified by appropriately
shaping the pole pieces as in the isochronous
cyclotrons, operating in a pulsed mode and
changing the frequency applied to the dees as in
the synchrocyclotrons, either of which is limited by
the diminishing cost effectiveness of making larger
machines. Cost limitations have been overcome by
employing the more complex synchrotron or
modern,klystron-driven linear accelerators, both of
which have the advantage of scalability, offering
more power within an improved cost structure as the
machines are made larger.

Notable examples[edit]

The world's largest cyclotron is at

the RIKEN laboratory in Japan. Called the SRC, for
Superconducting Ring Cyclotron, it has 6 separated
superconducting sectors, and is 19 m in diameter
and 8 m high. Built to accelerate heavy ions, its
maximum magnetic field is 3.8 tesla, yielding a
bending ability of 8 tesla-metres. The total weight of
the cyclotron is 8,300 tonnes. It has accelerated
uranium ions to 345 MeV per atomic mass unit.[11]

TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for nuclear

and particle physics, houses one of the world's
largest cyclotrons. The 18 m diameter, 4,000 tonne
main magnet produces a field of 0.46 T while a
23 MHz 94 kV electric field is used to accelerate the
300 μA beam. Its large size is partly a result of using
negative hydrogen ions rather than protons. The
advantage is that extraction is simpler; multi-energy,
multi-beams can be extracted by inserting thin
carbon stripping foils at appropriate radii. The
disadvantage is that the magnetic field is limited: a
magnetic field larger than about 0.5 tesla can
prematurely strip the loosely-bound second electron.
TRIUMF is run by a consortium of eighteen
Canadian universities and is located at
the University of British Columbia, Vancouver,
Canada.

Related technologies[edit]

The spiraling of electrons in a cylindrical vacuum

chamber within a transverse magnetic field is also
employed in the magnetron, a device for producing
high frequency radio waves (microwaves).
The synchrotron moves the particles through a path
 of constant radius, allowing it to be made as a pipe
and so of much larger radius than is practical with
the cyclotron and synchrocyclotron. The larger
radius allows the use of numerous magnets, each of
which imparts angular momentum and so allows
particles of higher velocity (mass) to be kept within
the bounds of the evacuated pipe. The magnetic
field strength of each of the bending magnets is
increased as the particles gain energy in order to
keep the bending angle constant.

Cyclotron
The cyclotron was one of the earliest types of particle accelerators, and is still used as
the first stage of some large multi-stage particle accelerators. It makes use of
themagnetic force on a moving charge to bend moving charges into a semicircular path
between accelerations by an applied electric field. The applied electric field accelerates
Ind
electrons between the "dees" of the magnetic field region. The field is reversed at
ex
the cyclotron frequency to accelerate the electrons back across the gap.
Ele
ctro
ma
gne
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forc
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Ma
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fiel
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con
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s

When the cyclotron principle is used to accelerated electrons, it has been historically
called a betatron. The cyclotron principle as applied to electrons is illustrated below.
Note: these illustrations are grossly simplified for demonstration fo the cyclotron
principle. In current practice sine waves are used for the acceleration and the "dees"
are resonant cavities favoring one frequency. The magnetic fields are typically altered
to keep the acceleration condition optimized, even when speeds become high enough
that relativistic corrections are necessary.
Magnetic interactions with charge Magnetic force applications

Go
HyperPhysics***** Electricity and Magnetism Bac
k

Cyclotron Frequency
 A moving charge in a cyclotronwill
move in a circular path under the
influence of a constant magnetic
field. If the time to complete one
orbit is calculated:

it is found that the period is

independent of the radius. Therefore
if a square wave is applied at angular
frequency qB/m, the charge will
spiral outward, increasing in speed.

When a square wave of angular frequency

is applied between the two sides of the magnetic poles, the charge will be boosted again
at just the right time to accelerate it across the gap. Thus the constant cyclotron
frequency can continue to accelerate the charge (so long as it is not relativistic).

Cyclotron

A cyclotron is a machine used to accelerate charged particles to high

energies. The first cyclotron was built by Ernest Orlando Lawrence and his
 graduate student, M. Stanley Livingston, at the University of California,
Berkley, in the early 1930's.
A cyclotron consists of two D-shaped cavities sandwiched between two
electromagnets. A radioactive source is placed in the center of the cyclotron
and the electromagnets are turned on. The radioactive source emits charged
particles. It just so happens that a magnetic field can bend the path of a
charged particle so, if everything is just right, the charged particle will circle
around inside the D-shaped cavities. However, this doesn't accelerate the
particle. In order to do that, the two D-shaped cavities have to be hooked up
to a radio wave generator. This generator gives one cavity a positive charge
and the other cavity a negative charge. After a moment, the radio wave
generator switches the charges on the cavities. The charges keep switching
back and forth as long as the radio wave generator is on. It is this switching
of charges that accelerates the particle.
Let's say that we have an alpha particle inside our cyclotron. Alpha
particles have a charge of +2, so their paths can bent by magnetic fields. As
an alpha particle goes around the cyclotron, it crosses the gap between the
two D-shaped cavities. If the charge on the cavity in front of the alpha
particle is negative and the charge on the cavity in back of it is positive, the
alpha particle is pulled forward (remember that opposite charges attract
while like charges repel). This just accelerated the alpha particle! The
particle travels through one cavity and again comes to the gap. With luck,
the radio wave generator has changed the charges on the cavities in time, so
the alpha particle once again sees a negative charge in front of it and a
positive charge in back of it and is again pulled forward. As long as the
timing is right, the alpha particle will always see a negative charge in front
of it and a positive charge in back of it when it crosses the gap between
cavities. This is how a cyclotron accelerates particles!
Unfortunately, there's one more thing to worry about. The faster a charged
particle moves, the less it is affected by a magnetic field. So, as particles
speed up in a cyclotron, they spiral outwards. This makes it easy to get the
particles out of the cyclotron, but also puts a limit on the amount of
acceleration they can undergo.

How will your equipment perform in radioactive

environments?
The RERP facilities provide proton radiation testing for space exploration programs like NASA’s
Johnson Space Center and for research that includes materials science and particle physics. The IU
Cyclotron delivers 200 MeV proton beam to two dedicated RERP beamlines for exploring the
effects of ionizing radiation on electric systems and other equipment. Our beamlines are
commercially available to outside users at competitive rates. We invite you to schedule your
experiment.
cy·clo·tron (sī′klə-trŏn′)
n.
A circular particle accelerator in which charged subatomic particles
generated at a central source are accelerated spirally outward in a
plane perpendicular to a fixed magnetic field by an alternating electric
field. A cyclotron is capable of generating particle energies between a
few million and several tens of millions of electron volts. cyclotron

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in
2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

a type of particle accelerator in which the particles spiral inside two D-shaped hollow metal electrodes
placed facing each other under the effect of a strong vertical magnetic field, gaining energy by a high-
frequency voltage applied between these electrodes
an accelerator in which particles move in spiral paths in a magnetic field

yclotron (sī′klə-trŏn′)
A type of particle accelerator that accelerates charged subatomic
particles, such as protons and electrons, in an outwardly spiraling
path, greatly increasing their energies. Cyclotrons are used to bring cyclotron
about high-speed particle collisions in order to study subatomic An alternating electric field
structures. Compare linear accelerator. See also synchrocyclotron. attracts the particles from one
See Note at particle accelerator. side of the cyclotron to the
other. The cyclotron's
magnetic field, generated by
the two electromagnets,
bends each particle's path
into a horizontal spiral, forcing
it to accelerate in order to
keep up with the alternating
electric field. When the
particle reaches its peak
acceleration it is released to
collide with the desired target.
 Cyclotron

e 88-Inch Cyclotron supports a local research program in nuclear science and is the home of the B
Facility. Operated by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Cyclotron is now jointly f
Space Community.

The 88-Inch is a K=140 sector-focused cyclotron with both light- and heavy-ion capabilities. Proto
intensities (10-20 pμA) up to maximum energies of 55 MeV (protons), 65 MeV (deuterons), 170 Me
through uranium can be accelerated to maximum energies which vary with the mass and charge s

The 88-Inch Cyclotron supports ongoing research programs in nuclear structure, astrophysics, hea
interactions, symmetries, and technology R&D by LBNL and U.C. Berkeley. Education of the next
mission. Major instrumentation at the 88-Inch Cyclotron include the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator
superconducting ECR ion source.

The BASE Facility provides well-characterized beams of protons, heavy ions and other medium en
environment. The National Security Space (NSS) community and researchers from other governme
international institutions use these beams to understand the effect of radiation on microelectron
Description
The Ring cyclotron is a seperated sector cyclotron with a fixed beam energy of 590 MeV,
built by PSI and commissioned in 1974. The 72 MeV beam from the injector 2 cyclotron,
enters from the back of the cyclotron and is injected into an orbit in the center of the
Ring, accelerated over 186 revolutions and extracted at the full energy in the foreground
of the picture.
The design is based on criteria that allow operation at very high beam intensities: an
open structure of four large and powerfull RF-cavities providing a high acceleration
voltage, and a flat-top cavity operating at the third harmonic of the accelerating RF-
voltage. The resulting strong, phase-independent energy gain per revolution gives good
turn separation and hence beam extraction with low beam losses. This is a mandatory
condition for high current operation in a cyclotron.
Characteristics Value
Injection Energy 70-72 MeV (37.1% of light speed)
Extraction Energy 590 MeV (78,9% of light speed)
Extraction Momentum 1.2 Gev/c
Energy spread (FWHM) ca. 0.2 %
Beam Emittance ca. 2 pi mm x mrad
Beam Current 2.2 mA DC
Accelerator Frequency 50.63 MHz
Time Between Pulses 19.75 ns
Bunch Width ca. 0.3 ns
Extraction Losses ca. 0.03 %
Mass of Sektormagnet 8 x 250.000 kg
Magneticfield (Stiffness T x m, middle) 0.9 T (4.0, 0.6 T)
Radius at injection 2100 mm
Radius at extraction 4460 mm
Mass of Resonator 4 x 25.000 kg
Electron cyclotron resonance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electron cyclotron resonance is a phenomenon observed in plasma physics, condensed matter physics,
and accelerator physics. An electron in a static and uniform magnetic field will move in a circle due to
the Lorentz force. The circular motion may be superimposed with a uniform axial motion, resulting in
a helix, or with a uniform motion perpendicular to the field, e.g., in the presence of an electrical or
gravitational field, resulting in a cycloid. The angular frequency (ω = 2πf ) of this cyclotron motion for a
given magnetic field strength B is given (in SI units)[1] by

where is the elementary charge and is the mass of the electron. For the commonly
used microwave frequency 2.45 GHz and the bare electron charge and mass, the resonance condition
is met when B = 875 G = 0.0875 T. For particles of charge q, rest mass m0 moving at relativistic
speeds v, the formula needs to be adjusted according to the special theory of relativity to:

where

The Cyclotron

The largest particle accelerators have dimensions measured in miles. A cyclotron is

a particle accelerator that is so compact that a small one could actually fit in your
pocket. It makes use of electric and magnetic fields in a clever way to accelerate a
charge in a small space.

A cyclotron consists of two D-shaped regions known as dees. In each dee there is a
magnetic field perpendicular to the plane of the page. In the gap separating the
dees there is a uniform electric field pointing from one dee to the other. When a
charge is released from rest in the gap it is accelerated by the electric field and
carried into one of the dees. The magnetic field in the dee causes the charge to
follow a half-circle that carries it back to the gap.

While the charge is in the dee the electric field in the gap is reversed, so the charge
is once again accelerated across the gap. The cycle continues with the magnetic
field in the dees continually bringing the charge back to the gap. Every time the
charge crosses the gap it picks up speed. This causes the half-circles in the dees to
increase in radius, and eventually the charge emerges from the cyclotron at high
speed.
How can you time it so the electric field reverses direction at the right time to
accelerate the charge properly? Recall that for a charge following a circular path in
a uniform magnetic field, the period is independent of the speed of the charge.
Every half-circle in the dees takes the same amount of time. Unlike the cyclotron
in the simulation, a real cyclotron is set up with a small gap so that the time to
cross the gap is much smaller than the time spent in a dee. Hooking the dees up to
an AC voltage source that reverses direction at regular intervals (corresponding to
the time the charge takes to do a half-circle in a dee) is all that is required to
produce an electric field that reverses direction at the appropriate time.

Consider these questions relating to the design of the cyclotron.

1. The first time the charge crosses the gap its kinetic energy increases by an
amount K. What is the change in kinetic energy associated with each half-circle
in a dee.

1. larger than K
2. equal to K
3. smaller than K

In a dee the force on the charge comes from the magnetic field, so the force is
perpendicular to the velocity. The speed, and hence the kinetic energy, stays
constant, so the change is zero.

2. The first time the charge crosses the gap its kinetic energy increases by an
amount K. Assuming the electric field in the gap is the same magnitude at all
times, what is the change in kinetic energy the second time the charge crosses the
gap?

1. larger than K
2. equal to K
3. smaller than K

If the electric field has the same magnitude, the potential difference across the gap
always has the same magnitude.
K = q V, so the kinetic energy increases by the same amount each time the
charge crosses the gap.

3. Let's say you want to increase the speed of the particles when they emerge from
the cyclotron. Which is more effective, increasing the potential difference across
the gap or increasing the magnetic field in the dees?

1. increasing the potential difference in the gap

2. increasing the magnetic field in the dees
3. either one, they're equally effective
The final kinetic energy is essentially independent of the potential difference in the
gap, but the kinetic energy is proportional to the square of the magnetic field, so
increasing the magnetic field is the way to increase the kinetic energy.

Note that whatever the magnitudes of the fields the final half-circle the charge
passes through in the dee has a radius approximately equal to R, the radius of the
dee itelf. The radius of the circular path of a charged particle in a magnetic field is:

r = mv/qB.

In this case the speed of the particle is v = RqB/m.

Therefore the final kinetic energy is:

K = 1/2 mv2 = R2q2B2/2m