BRAINCAKEThe Linear Accelerator
A linear accelerator (linac) accelerates charged particles in a straight line. It is made of a series of hollow cylindrical electrodes called drift tubes, inside an evacuated pipe. Alternate tubes are connected to opposite terminals of a high-frequency alternating p.d.
How it works:
• Inside a drift tube there is no electric field, so the particle moves at constant velocity.
• In the gaps between tubes there is an electric field, and the particle is accelerated.
• While the particle is inside a tube, the p.d. reverses. So at every gap the tube behind repels the particle and the tube ahead attracts it, and it gains energy at every gap.
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More in Particle Physics
- Alpha Particle Scattering and the Nuclear Model
- Particle Accelerators
- The Cyclotron
- Particle Detectors
- Tracks in a Magnetic Field
- Relativistic Energies and GeV
- Mass in MeV/c2
- Particles and Antiparticles
All 19 lessons in Particle Physics · All Edexcel A-level Physics topics