PhySics ProJect

Topic: Cyclotron
Teacher: Mr. S.P. Dixit Sir

BY: Rajesh Bansal

Class: XII C3

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CYCLOTRON
The Cyclotron is a machine to accelerate
Charged Particles or Ions to high energies.
It was convented by E.O. Lawerence and M.S.
Livingston in 1932 to investigate nuclear
structure.
The Cyclotron uses both Electric and Magnetic
fields in combination to increase the energy
charged particles.
As the fields are perpendicular to each other
they are also called Crossed fields.
Cyclotron uses the fact that the frequency of
revolution of the charged particles in a
magnetic field is independent of its energy.

The Particles move most of the time inside two

Semicircular Disc-like metal containers, D1 and D2.
Which are called dees as they look like the letter D.
Inside the Metal boxes the particle is shielded and
is not acted on by the Electric field.
The magnetic field, however acts on the particle
and make it go round in a circular path inside dee.
Every time particle moves from one dee to another
it is acted upon by the electric field.
The sign of electric field is changed alternately in
tune with the circular motion of the particle.
This ensures that the particles is always
accelerated by the electric field. Each time the
acceleration increases the energy of the particle.

As energy increases the radius of the circular

path incearses, so the path is a spiral one.
The whole assembly is evaluated to minimise
collisions between ions and the air molecules.
A high frequency alternating voltage is applied to
the dees.(as shown in figure)
Positive ions or positively charged particles (e.g.
Protons) are released at the centre P. They move
in a semicircular path in one of the dees and
anion in the gap between the dees in a time
interval where T, the period of revolution.

T=

This Frequency is called the cyclotron frequency for

obvious reasons and is denoted by VC.
The Frequency Va of the applied voltage is adjusted
so that the polarity of the dees is reversed in the
same time that it takes the ions to complete one half
of the revolution.
The requirement Va = Vc is called the Resonance
condition.
The Phase of the supply is adjusted so that when the
positive ions arrive at the edge of D1 , D2 is at a lower
potential and the ions are accelerated across the gap.
Inside the dees the particles travel in a region free of
the electric field .

The increase in their kinetic energy is qv each time

they cross from one dee to another (V refers to the
voltage across the dees at that time).

HISTORY

The Cyclotron was invented and patented by Ernst

Lawrence of the University of California, Berkeley,
Where it was first operated in 1932.
A graduate student M. Stanley Livingston, did much
of the work of translating the idea into working
hardware.
Lawrence read an article about the concept of a drift
tube linac by Rolf Wideroe, who had also been
working along similar lines with the Betatron concept.
The first European Cyclotron was construct in
Leningrad in the Physics Department of the Radium
Institute headed by Vitaly khlopin (ru).

Cyclotron Patent

At the Radiation Laboratoryof the

University of Californiaat Berkeley Lawrence
constructed a series of cyclotrons which were the
most powerful accelerators in the world at the
time; a 27 inch (68cm) 4.8 MeV machine (1932), a
37 inch (94cm) 8 MeV machine (1937), and a 60
inch (1.5 m) 16 MeV machine (1939). He also
developed an 184 inch (4.7 m)synchrocyclotron

(1945).
Leningrad instrument was first proposed in 1932
by George Gamow and Lev Mysovskii (ru) and was
installed and became operative by 1937.
In Nazi Germany a Cyclotron was built in
Heidelberg under supervision of Walther Bothe
and Wolfgang Gentner, with support from the
Heereswaffenamt, and became operative in 1943.

Cyclotron
Working

PRINCIPLE OF
OPERATION
Cyclotrons accelerated charged particles beam
using a high frequency alternating voltage which
is applied between two D-shaped electrodes (also
called dees)
An additional Magnetic field (B) is applied in
perpendicular direction to the electrode plane,
enabling particles to re-encounter the accelerating
voltage many times at the same phase, to achieve
this the voltage frequency must match the
particles cyclotron resonance frequency with the
relativistic mass m and its charge q.

f=

The frequency is given by equality of Centripetal

force and Magnetic Corentz 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 the 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.

Particle
Acceleratio
n

PARTICLE ENERGY
Since the particles are accelerated by the voltage
many times, the final energy of the particles is
not dependent on the accelerating voltage but the
diameter of the accelerating chamber, the dees.
Cyclotrons can only accelerate particles to speeds
much slower than thespeed of light,
nonrelativisticspeeds. For nonrelativistic
particles, the centripetal force Fcrequired to
keep them in their curved path is

Fc =

Where

m is Particles mass, v is the Velocity and r

is the Diameter of the path.

This force was provided by theLorentz force

FBof the magnetic fieldB

FB = qvB
q

where
is the Particle's charge. The particles reach their
maximum energy at the periphery of the dees, where the
radius of their path is r

= Rthe Diameter of the dees .

Equating the above two forces

= qvB

So we put the output energy of the particles is

E = mv2 = q2B2R2

Therefore, the limit to the cyclotron's output energy

for a given type of particle was the strength of the
magnetic fieldB, which was limited to about 2 T for
ferromagnetic electromagnets, and the diameter of
the dees R, which was determined by the diameter
of the magnet's pole pieces. So very large magnets
were constructed for cyclotrons, culminating in
Lawrence's 1946 synchrocyclotron, which had pole
pieces 184 inches (15 feet or 4.6 m) in diameter.

Radiation
Therapy

RELATIVISTIC
CONSIDERATIONS
Inthe 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 thespeed of light, theirrelativistic mass
increases, requiring either modifications to the
frequency, leading to thesynchrocyclotron, or
modifications to the magnetic field during the
acceleration, which leads to theisochronous cyclotron.

The relativistic mass can be rewritten as

m= =
Where m0 is the Particles mass ,
is relative velocity and,
= is theLorentz factor.

The relativistic cyclotron frequency and angular

frequency can be rewritten as

f= =

w=2= = =

where

would be the cyclotron frequency in classical

approximation,

w0 would be the cyclotron angular

in classical approximation.
Thegyroradiusfor

frequency

a particle moving in a
static magnetic field is then given by

r= = =

because,

wr = v =
where v would be the (linear) velocity.

Types Of Cyclotron

Cyclotron

Isochronous
Cyclotron
Synchrocyclotr
on

ISOCHRONOUS
1. CYCLOTRON

An alternative to the Synchrocyclotron is the

Isochronous cyclotron, which has a magnetic field
that increase with radius, rather then with time
Isochronous cyclotrons are capable of producing
much greater than 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

This
solution for focusing the particle beam was
proposed byL. H. Thomasin 1938.
Recalling the relativisticgyroradius

and the relativistic cyclotron frequency

one can chooseB to be proportional to the
Lorentz factor,B = 0 . This results in the
relation
which again only depends on
the velocity v, 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 theradio 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.
Examples of isochronous cyclotrons abound; in fact
almost all modern cyclotrons use azimuthallyvarying fields. The TRIUMF cyclotron mentioned
below is the largest with an outer orbit radius of
7.9metres, extracting protons at up to 510MeV,
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.

SYNCHROCYCLOTRO
N
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

f= =

where,

is the classical cyclotron frequency and

again is the relative velocity of the particle beam.
The rest mass of an electron is 511keV/c2, so the
frequency correction is 1% for a magnetic vacuum
tube with a 5.11keV/c2direct current
accelerating voltage.
The proton mass is nearly two thousand times
the electron mass, so the 1% correction energy is
about 9MeV, which is sufficient to induce
nuclear reactions.

USAGE
For several decades, cyclotrons were the best
source of high-energy beams fornuclear 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 transmutationof the elements used in
the target.

Cyclotrons can be used inparticle therapyto treat

cancer.

Ion beams from cyclotrons can be used, as in

proton therapy, to penetrate the body and kill tumors
byradiation damage, while minimizing damage to
healthy tissue along their path.
Cyclotron beams can be used to bombard other atoms
to produce short-livedpositron-emitting isotopes
suitable forPET imaging.

More recently cyclotrons currently installed at

hospitals for particle therapy have been retrofitted to
enable them to producetechnetium-99m.
Technetium-99m is a diagnostic isotope in short
supply due to difficulties at Canada'sChalk River
facility.

RELATED TECHNOLOGIES

The spiraling of electrons in a cylindrical vacuum

chamber within a transverse magnetic field is also
employed in themagnetron, a device for producing
high frequency radio waves (microwaves).
Thesynchrotronmoves 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 andsynchrocyclotron.
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.

Notable Examples
(1) One of the world's largest cyclotrons is at the

RIKENlaboratory in Japan. Called the SRC, for

Superconducting Ring Cyclotron, it has 6 separated
superconducting sectors, and is 19m in diameter and
8m high.
Built to accelerate heavy ions, its maximum magnetic
field is 3.8tesla, yielding a bending ability of 8teslametres. The total weight of the cyclotron is 8,300
tonnes.

It has accelerated uranium ions to 345MeV per atomic

mass unit.

(2) TRIUMF , Canada's national laboratory for nuclear and

particle physics, houses the world's largest cyclotron. [17]The

18m diameter, 4,000 tonne main magnet produces a field of
0.46Twhile a 23MHz 94kVelectric field is used to accelerate
the 300A beam.

The TRIUMF field goes from 0 to about 320 inches radius

with the maximum beam radius of 310 inches. This is
because it requires a lower magnetic field to reduce EM
stripping of the loosely bound electrons.
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.
TRIUMF is run by a consortium of eighteen Canadian
universities and is located at the
University of British Columbia , Vancouver, Canada.

ADVANTAGES & LIMITATIONS

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 byklystrons).

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.
Thespiralpath of the cyclotron beam can only "sync
up" with klystron-type (constant frequency) voltage
sources if the accelerated particles are approximately
obeyingNewton's Laws of Motion.

If the particles become fast enough thatrelativistic

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 complexsynchrotronor
modern,klystron-drivenlinear accelerators, both
of which have the advantage of scalability,
offering more power within an improved cost
structure as the machines are made larger.