syklotronen

Syklotronen is a type of particle accelerator developed by Ernest Lawrence in 1932. It utilizes a constant magnetic field to bend charged particles in a spiral path, while alternating electric fields accelerate them at each pass through a gap between two D-shaped electrodes. These electrodes, known as "dees," are placed in a vacuum chamber within a strong magnetic field. As the particles gain energy, their orbital radius increases, causing them to spiral outwards until they reach the desired energy and are extracted from the cyclotron. This design allows for the acceleration of particles to much higher energies than earlier linear accelerators. The principle of the cyclotron is based on the concept of resonance, where the frequency of the accelerating electric field is matched to the cyclotron frequency of the particles, which is dependent on their charge-to-mass ratio and the magnetic field strength. Cyclotrons have been instrumental in various fields, including nuclear physics research, medical isotope production for diagnostic imaging like PET scans, and cancer therapy. While more advanced accelerators like synchrotrons have superseded cyclotrons for achieving very high energies, cyclotrons remain valuable for specific applications requiring moderate energy beams.