The charged particle
ACCELERATORS AND THEIR USES
accelerator is an electromagnetic
device which artificially accelerates charged particles inside an
electric field to a state of high energy. It is generally
referred to as an 'accelerator',
Particle accelerators were initially developed for basic
research into nuclear physics and elementary particle physics. As
the application of nuclear technology develops, the accelerator
has been used more and more widely in basic research as well as
in industry, agriculture and medicine. New fields of application
are still being explored.
There are many different types of accelerator.
For example,
electron
and
ion
depending
the type of particle there are on
accelerators; depending on differences in energy there are low-
energy, medium-energy and high-energy accelerators; depending on
the particle orbits there are linear and circular accelerators.
Although the characteristics of the various accelerators
differ, they generally consist of the three following parts.
1.
The charged particle producing mechanism the electron
gun or the ion source.
particle accelerator mechanism This is the main
2.
The
of the whole accelerator.
Its purpose is mainly to
ensure
part
that the charged particles are successfully accelerated to the
required rated energy. The mechanism includes the electric field
the particles,
guiding
magnetic field system which steers the movement of the charged
particles along their envisaged orbits, the focusing system
system
for
the accelerated charged
for
1