BRAINCAKEThe Cyclotron
A cyclotron is a circular accelerator. It has two hollow, D-shaped electrodes called dees, with a gap between them, in an evacuated chamber. A uniform magnetic field acts perpendicular to the dees, and an alternating p.d. is connected across them.
How it works:
• Charged particles are released near the centre.
• Inside a dee there is no electric field. The magnetic force BQv provides the centripetal force, so the particle moves in a semicircle at constant speed.
• Each time the particle crosses the gap, the p.d. has reversed, so it is accelerated.
• As its momentum increases, the radius increases (r = p/BQ), so the particle spirals outwards until it is deflected out at the edge.
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