PHYSICS PROJECT

CYCLOTRON
SESSION 2019-20

SUBMITTED BY- SUBMITTED TO-

KARTIKEY GUPTA MR. R. K. SINGH

 CERTIFICATE
SHRI RAM CENTENNIAL SCHOOL

SESSION 2019-20
AISSCE
This is to certify that Kartikey Gupta a student of class XII, has
successfully completed research on the topic: Cyclotron under the
guidance of Mr. R. K. Singh in partial fulfillment of the chemistry
practical examination conducted by AISSCE.

Teacher In-Charge

Examiner Head of Institution

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my
teacher Mr. R. K. Singh as well as our principal Mrs. Bhavna
Pujari who gave me the golden opportunity to do this
wonderful project on the topic Cyclotron, which also helped
me doing a lot of research and I came to know about so many
things. I am really thankful to them.

Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends

who helped me a lot in finalizing this project within limited
time frame.

Index
1. Introduction

2. History

3. Principles of Cyclotron

4. Construction

5. Components

6. Theory

7. Working

8. Particle Energy

9. Types of Cyclotron

10. Limitations

11. Uses of Cyclotron

INTRODUCTION
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
Livingston 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 strong magnetic field. It is also known as magnetic
resonance accelerator. It makes use of the magnetic force on a moving charge to
bend moving charges into a semicircular path between acceleration by an applied
electric field. The applied electric field accelerates electron between the "dees" of
magnetic field region. The field is reversed at the cyclotron frequency to
accelerate the electron back across the gap.

HISTORY
The cyclotron was conceived in Germany in the 1920s. The first cyclotron patent
was filed by Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard in 1929, while working at Humboldt
University of Berlin.

The first cyclotron was developed and patented by Ernest Lawrence in 1932 at the
University of California, Berkeley. He used large electromagnets recycled from
obsolete Poulsen arc radio transmitters provided by the Federal Telegraph
Company. A graduate student, M. Stanley Livingston, did much of the work of
translating the idea into working hardware. Lawrence received the 1939 Nobel
prize in physics for this work.

PRINCIPLE OF CYLOTRON
It is based on the principle that a positive ion can acquire sufficiently large energy
with a comparatively smaller alternating potential difference by making them to
cross the same electric field time and again by making use of a strong magnetic
field.
Cyclotron works on the principle that a charged particle moving normal to a
magnetic field experiences magnetic lorentz force due to which the particle moves
in a circular path.

A charged particle can be accelerated to very high energies by making it pass

through a moderate electric field a number of times. This can be done with the help
of a perpendicular magnetic field which throws the charged particle into a circular
motion, the frequency of which does not depend on the speed of the particle
and the radius of the circular orbit.
CONSTRUCTION
It consists of a hollow metal cylinder divided into two sections D1 and D2 called
Dees, enclosed in an evacuated chamber. The Dees are kept separated and a source
of ions is placed at the centre in the gap between the Dees. They are placed
between the pole pieces of a strong electromagnet. The magnetic field acts
perpendicular to the plane of the Dees. The Dees are connected to a high frequency
oscillator.

COMPONENTS
As shown in figure, a cyclotron consists of the following main parts

 It consists of two small, hollow, metallic half-cylinders D1 and D2 called

dees as they are in the shape of D.
 They are mounted inside a vacuum chamber between the poles of a powerful
electromagnet.
 The dees are connected to the source of high frequency alternating voltage
of few hundred kilovolts.
 The beam of charged particles to be accelerated is injected into the dees near
their centre, in a plane perpendicular to the magnetic field.
 The charged particles are pulled out of the dees by a deflecting plate (which
is negatively charged) through a window W.
 The whole device is in high vacuum (pressure ∼10−6 mm of Hg) so that the
air molecules may not collide with the charged particles.

THEORY
Let a particle of charge q and mass m enter a region of magnetic field B→ with a
velocity v→ normal to the field B→. The particle follows a circular path, the
necessary centripetal force begin provided by the magnetic field. Therefore,

Magnetic force on charge q = Centripetal force on charge q

qvBsin90o = mv2r
r = mv/qB

Period of revolution of the charged particle is given by

T = 2πr/v = 2πmv/qvB = 2πm/qB

Hence frequency of revolution of the particle will be

fc = 1/T = qB/2πm

Clearly, this frequency is independent of both the velocity of the particle and the
radius of the orbit and is called cyclotron frequency or magnetic resonance
frequency. This is the key fact which is made use of in the operation of a cyclotron.
WORKING
Suppose a positive ion, say a proton, enters the gap between the two dees and
finds dee D1 to be negative. It gets accelerated towards dee D1.As it enters the
dee D1,it does not experience any electric field due to shielding effect of the
metallic dee. The perpendicular magnetic field throws it into a circular path. At
the instant the proton comes out of dee D1,,it finds dee D1 positive and dee D2.
It moves faster through D2 describing a larger semicircle than before. Thus if the
frequency of the applied voltage is kept exactly the same as the frequency of
revolution of the proton, then every time the proton reaches the gap between
the two dees, the electric field is reversed and proton receives a push and finally
it acquires very high energy. This is called the cyclotron’s resonance condition.
The proton follows a spiral path. The accelerated proton is ejected through a
window by a deflecting voltage and hits the target.

MAXIMUM K.E OF THE ACCELERATED IONS:

The ions will attain maximum velocity near the periphery of the dees. If vo is the
maximum velocity acquired by the ions and r0 is the radius of the dees, then
mvo2ro = qvoB
vo = qBrom

The maximum kinetic energy of the ions will be

Ko = 1/2mvo2 = 1/2m[qBrom]2
Ko = 1/2q2B2ro2m3

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 on the strength of the
magnetic field and the diameter of the accelerating chamber, the dees. Cyclotrons
can only accelerate particles to speeds much slower than the speed of light, non-
relativistic speeds. For non-relativistic particles, the centripetal force Fc required to
keep them in their curved path is
Fc = mv2/r
where m is the particle's mass, v its velocity, and r is the radius of the path. This
force is provided by the Lorentz Force FB of the magnetic field B
FB = qvB
where q 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 = R the radius of the dees.
Equating these two forces
mv2/R = qvB
v = qBR/m

So the output energy of the particles is

E = 1/2mv2 = q2B2R2/2m

Therefore, 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. So very large magnets were constructed
for cyclotrons, culminating in Lawrence's 1946 synchrocyclotron, which had pole
pieces 4.67 m in diameter.

TYPES OF CYCLOTRONS
CLASSICAL CYCLOTRONS
The key to the operation of a cyclotron is the fact that the orbits of ions in a
uniform magnetic field are isochronous; that is, the time taken by a particle of a
given mass to make one complete circuit is the same at any speed or energy as long
as the speed is much less than that of light. (As the speed of a particle approaches
that of light, its mass increases as predicted by the theory of relativity.) This
isochronicity makes it possible for a high voltage, reversing in polarity at a
constant frequency, to accelerate a particle many times. An ion source is located at
the centre of an evacuated chamber that has the shape of a short cylinder, like a
pillbox, between the poles of an electromagnet that creates a uniform field
perpendicular to the flat faces. The accelerating voltage is applied by electrodes,
called dees from their shape: each is a D-shaped half of a pillbox. The source of the
voltage is an oscillator—similar to a radio transmitter—that operates at a frequency
equal to the frequency of revolution of the particles in the magnetic field. The
electric fields caused by this accelerating voltage are concentrated in the gap
between the dees; there is no electric field inside the dees. The path of the particle
inside the dees is therefore circular. Each time the particle crosses the gap between
the dees, it is accelerated, because in the time between these crossings the direction
of the field reverses. The path of the particle is thus a spiral-like series of
semicircles of continually increasing radius.
NANOTRON
Superconducting, cold iron, cryogen free ‘portable’ deuterium Cyclotron

ISOTRON
For short lived PET isotope production:
 Protons or heavy ions
 30-100 MeV
 Synchrocyclotron or isochronous cyclotron is possible
GIGATRON
1 GeV, 10 mA protons for airborne active interrogation

MEGATRON
600 MeV muon cyclotron (requires a gigatron to produce muons and a reverse
cyclotron muon cooler for capture for accel.)

LIMITATIONS
 Maintaining a uniform magnetic field over a large area of the Dees is
difficult.
 At high velocities, relativistic variation of mass of the particle upsets the
resonance condition.
 According to the Einstein’s special theory of relativity, the mass of a particle
increases with the increase in its velocity as
m = mo√ (1−v2/c2 )
Where mo is the rest mass of the particle. At high velocities, the cyclotron
frequency (fc= qB/2πm) will decrease due to increase in mass. This will
throw the particles out of resonance with the oscillating field. That is, as the
ions reach the gap between the dees, the polarity of the dees is not reversed
at that instant. Consequently the ions are not accelerated further. This
drawback is overcome either by increasing magnetic field as in a
synchrotron or by decreasing the frequency of the alternating electric field as
in a synchro-cyclotron.
 Electrons cannot be accelerated in a cyclotron. A large increase in their
energy increases their velocity to a very large extent. This throws the
electrons out of step with the oscillating field.
 Neutron, being electrically neutral, cannot be accelerated in a cyclotron.
USES OF CYCLOTRON:
 The high energy particles produced in a cylinder are used to bombard nuclei
and study the resulting nuclear reactions and hence investigate nuclear
structure.

 The high energy particles are used to produce other high energy particles,
such as Neutrons by collisions. These fast neutrons used in atomic reactions.

 It is used to implant ions into solids and modify their properties or even
synthesis new materials.

 It is used to produce radioactive isotopes which are used in hospitals for

diagnosis and treatment.