Synchrotrons - hdbk11080045

DOE-HDBK-1108-97

Radiological Training for Accelerator Facilities

Instructor's Guide

Lesson Plan

Instructor's Notes

Operation

In the cyclotron, magnets guide the particle

along a spiral path, allowing a single electric

field to apply many cycles of acceleration.

Prototype

Soon unprecedented energies were achieved,

and the steady improvement of Lawrence's

simple machine has led to today's

synchrotrons, whose endless circular flight

paths allow particles to gain huge energies by

passing millions of times through the electric

fields that accelerate them.

Synchrotrons

A synchrotron accelerates particles using electric fields

over and over in a circular path. Magnetic fields are

used to bend the particles' trajectories and keep them

moving in a circle. The accelerated particles lose

energy rounding the curves, so energy must be

continuously supplied. The beam is extracted heading

toward targets and detectors.

Colliders

Until 30 years ago, all accelerators were so-called

fixed-target machines in which the speeding particle

beam was made to hit a stationary target of some

chosen substance.