cyclotron

what is a cyclotron:
A cyclotron is used for accelerating positive ions, so that they acquire
energy large enough to carry out nuclear reactions. Cyclotron was
designed by Lawrence and Living stone in 1931 in order to overcome the
drawbacks of the linear accelerator. In a cyclotron, the positive ions cross
again and again the same alternating electric field and thereby gain the
energy. It is achieved by making them to move along spiral path under the
action of a strong magnetic field. It is also known as magnetic resonance
accelerator.

Principle of cyclotron:
The basic working principle of Cyclotron depends on the force on a
moving charged particle in a magnetic field and also motion of the charged
particle in the magnetic field.

Force on a Moving Charged Particle in a Magnetic

Field:

When a current carrying conductor of length L metre with current I ampere

placed perpendicularly in a magnetic field of flux density B Weber per
metre square, then the force rather to say magnetic force acting on the
conductor would be

Now, let us consider there are total N number of free electrons in the n
conductor lie in length L metre causing the current I ampere.

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Where ,e is the electrical charge of one electron and it is 1.6 × 10-19
coulomb
Now from equation (1) and (2) we get

Here, N number of electrons causing current I ampere, and consider that

they travel length L metre in time t, therefore drift velocity of the electrons
would be

From equation (3) and (4), we get

It is the force acting on N number of electrons in the magnetic field hence

force on a single electron in that magnetic field can be

Motion of Charged Particle in a Magnetic Field

When a charged particle moves in a magnetic field, there would be extreme

two conditions. The particle moves either along the direction of the
magnetic field or it moves perpendicular to the magnetic field.
When the particle moves along the axis of the direction of magnetic field,
magnetic force acting on it,

Hence there will be no force acting on the particle, hence no change in the
velocity of particle and hence it moves in straight line with constant speed.

Now if the charged particle moves perpendicular to the magnetic field then
there will be no change in the speed of the particle. This is because the
force acting on the particle is perpendicular to the motion of the particle
hence the force will not do any work on the particle so there will be no
change in the speed of the particle.
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But this force acting on the particle perpendicular to its motion and the
direction of the motion of the particle will change continuously. As a result
the particle will move in a in the field in a circular path of a constant radius
with constant speed.
If the radius of the circular motion is R metre then

Now,

Hence radius of the motion depends upon the velocity of the

motion.Angular speed and time period are constant.

Basics Principle of Cyclotron:

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This concept of motion of charged particle in a magnetic field was
successfully employed in an apparatus called cyclotron. Conceptually this
device is very simple but it has huge uses in the field of engineering,
physics and medicine. This is a charged particle accelerating device. The
motion of the charged particle under perpendicular magnetic field is solely
applied in the apparatus named cyclotron.

Construction of Cyclotron:

This device basically has three main constructional parts

1. Large sized electromagnet to create uniform magnetic field in

between its two face-to-face placed magnetic opposite poles.

2. Two low height hollow half cylinders made of high conductive metals.
These components of cyclotron are called Dees.

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 3. A high-frequency alternating high voltage source.

Constructional Details:

The Dees are placed face to face in between the electromagnetic poles.
The dees are so placed, that the straight edge will be face-to-face with
small gap between them. Also the magnetic flux of the electromagnet cut
these Dees exact perpendicularly. Now these two Dees are connected to
two terminals of an alternating voltage source so that if one Dees is in the
positive potential than other will be in exact opposite negative potential at
same time. As the source is alternating the potential of the Dees are altered
according to the frequency of the source. Now if a charged particle is
thrown from a point near to the centre of one Dees with certain velocity V1.
As the movement of the particle now perpendicular to the externally applied
magnetic field, there will be no change of velocity but the charged particle
will follow a circular path of radius

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Where, m gram is the mass and q coulomb is the charge of the thrown
particle and B Weber / metre2 is the flux density of externally applied
perpendicular magnetic field.
After travelling π radians or 180o with radius R1 the charged particle comes
to the edge of the Dee. Now the time period and frequency of the
applied voltage source is so adjusted with the time period of circular motion
that is

That the polarity of the other Dee becomes opposite that of the charged of
the particle. Hence due to attraction of the Dee ahead the moving particle
and also due to repulsion of the Dee in which the particle is now situated,
the particle gets extra kinetic energy.

Where ν1 is the velocity of the particle at previous Dee and ν2 is the velocity
of the particle in next Dee. Now the particle will move with this greater
velocity with radius R2 metre.

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Again due to constant perpendicular magnetic field the particle travels
another half cycle with this new radius R2metre and comes to the edge of
present Dee. When it comes to this edge, the ahead Dee again becomes in
opposite polarity of the behind and the particle crosses the gap between
Dees with gain of kinetic energy qV and hence again there is gain of
velocity and radius of the circularly travelling charged particle. In this way
the charged particle follows a spiral path of motion with continually
increasing velocity. Therefore the charged particle gets sufficiently high
required velocity before leaving the cyclotron gun head.
The frequency of voltage source say f.

Here, 2π is constant, m, q and B are known hence T can be calculated and

hence frequency of the voltage source would be

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Limitations:

a. Maintaining a uniform magnetic field over a large area of the Dees is

difficult.
b. At high velocities, relativistic variation of mass of the particle upsets the
resonance condition.
c. At high frequencies, relativistic variation of mass of the electron is
appreciable and hence electrons cannot be accelerated by cyclotron.
d. Cyclotron cannot accelerate uncharged particles like neutrons.
e. The classical cyclotron is therefore only capable of accelerating
particles up to a few percent of the speed of light.
f. 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.

Lawrence's 60-inch cyclotron, circa 1939, showing the beam of accelerated ions
(likely protons or deuterons) exiting the machine and ionizing the surrounding air
causing a blue glow.

g. The limit to the cyclotron's output energy for a given type of particle is
the strength of the magnetic field B, which is limited to about 2 T for
ferromagnetic electromagnets, and the radius of the dees R, which is
determined by the diameter of the magnet's pole pieces.

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ADVANTAGES OF A CYCLOTRON:
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.

TYPES OF CYCLOTRON:
There are numerous types of resonant circular accelerators,

Most resonant circular accelerators can be classed as either cyclotrons or

synchrotrons.

A. Cyclotron:

A cyclotron has constant magnetic field magnitude and constant rf

frequency. Beam energy is limited by relativistic effects, which destroy
synchronization between particle orbits and rf fields.

Therefore, the cyclotron is useful only for ion acceleration.

1. Uniform-Field Cyclotron
The uniform-field cyclotron has considerable historic significance. It was the
first accelerator to generate multi-MeV particle beams for nuclear physics
research.

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2. Azimuthally-Varying-Field (AVF) Cyclotron

The AVF cyclotron is a major improvement over the uniform-field cyclotron.

Variations are added to the confining magnetic field by attaching wedge-
shaped inserts at periodic azimuthal positions of the magnet poles.

3. Separated-Sector Cyclotron

The separated-sector cyclotron is a special case of the AVF cyclotron. The

azimuthal field variation results from splitting the bending magnet into a
number of sectors.

4. Spiral Cyclotron

The pole inserts in a spiral cyclotron have spiral boundaries. Spiral shaping
is used in both standard AVF and separated-sector machines.

5. Superconducting Cyclotron

Superconducting cyclotrons have shaped iron magnet poles that utilize the
focusing techniques outlined above. The magnetizing force is supplied by
superconducting coils, which consume little power.

Cyclotron resonance experiments:

resonance in semiconductors:

The experimental details of the cyclotron resonance experiments by which

the effective masses of charge carriers in semiconductors have been
determined are discussed. The semiconductors are measured at low
temperatures to allow largest possible mean free path for the charge
carriers. 1 cm microwave equipment is used. Charge carriers can be
produced in some cases by radio frequency ionization in the semiconductor
samples. Circularly polarized microwaves resonating in a circular cylindrical

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cavity are used in the determination of the sign of the charge carriers. The
microwave equivalent of a quarter wave plate is used in the production of
the circularly polarized microwaves.

measurement of charge-to-mass ratios:

The measurement of charge-to-mass ratios of electrically charged particles

from the frequency of their helical motion in a magnetic field. Such
experiments are particularly useful in the case of conducting crystals, such
as semiconductors and metals, in which the motions of electrons and holes
are strongly influenced by the periodic potential of the lattice through which
they move. Under such circumstances the electrical carriers often have
“effective masses” which differ greatly from the mass in free space; the
effective mass is often different for motion in different directions in the
crystal. Cyclotron resonance is also observed in gaseous plasma
discharges and is the basis for a class of particle accelerators.

CONCLUSION:
Uses of cyclotron
For several decades, these were the best sources of high-energy beams
for nuclear physics experiments. However, these 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.

Treat Cancer:
Cyclotrons can be used in particle therapy to treat cancer, using the ion
beams from cyclotrons can be used to penetrate the body and kill tumors
by radiation damage.
Cyclotron beams can be used to bombard other atoms to produce short-
lived positron-emitting isotopes suitable for PET imaging. More recently
some cyclotrons currently installed at hospitals for radio isotopes

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production have been retrofitted to enable them to produce technetium-
99m.[26] Technetium-99m is a diagnostic isotope in short supply due to
difficulties at Canada's Chalk River facility.

BIBILOGRAPHY:

 ENCYLOPEDIA
 CLASS 12 CBSE NCERT TEXTBOOK
 INTERNET
 NATIONAL NUCLEAR PHYSICS JOURNAL

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 INDEX
S.NO CONTENTS P.NO
1. INTRODUCTION TO CYCLOTRON 1
2. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF CYCLOTRON 3
3. CONSTRUCTION OF CYCLOTRON 4
4. LIMITATIONS 8
5. ADVANTAGES OF A CYCLOTRON 9
6. EXPERIMENTS ON CYCLOTRON 10
7. CONCLUSION 11
8. BIBILOGRAPHY 12

OBJECTIVE:
 To study the working of a cyclotron.
 Its principle, construction, applications as well limitations.

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