Synchrotron

Synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator that uses a series of magnetic fields to accelerate charged particles, such as electrons or protons, to nearly the speed of light. The synchrotron was invented in 1945 by Edwin McMillan and Vladimir Veksler, and has since been used in a variety of scientific and medical applications.

History

The first synchrotron was built in 1945 by Edwin McMillan at the University of California, Berkeley. It was a 300 MeV electron synchrotron. Later, in 1947, Vladimir Veksler in Moscow independently invented the synchrotron. The first proton synchrotron was designed and built in 1952 by a team led by Sir John Cockcroft at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in the UK.

Design and Operation

A synchrotron consists of a large ring-shaped vacuum chamber, inside which a beam of charged particles is accelerated by a rapidly changing magnetic field. The particles are injected into the ring at a low energy, and then accelerated to high energies by the magnetic field. The particles are kept in a circular path by a static magnetic field, which is adjusted to match the increasing energy of the particles.

Applications

Synchrotrons have a wide range of applications in both scientific research and industry. They are used in particle physics to study the fundamental properties of matter, in materials science to study the structure and properties of materials, and in medicine for radiation therapy and medical imaging.

See Also

• Particle accelerator
• Cyclotron
• Betatron

References

Synchrotron Resources
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