Design and construction of a cyclotron capable of accelerating protons to 2 MeV

Abstract

This thesis describes the design and construction of a cyclotron capable of accelerating protons to 2 MeV. A cyclotron is a charged particle accelerator that uses a magnetic field to confine particles to a spiral flight path in a vacuum chamber. An applied electrical field accelerates these particles to high energies, typically on the order of mega-electron volts. This cyclotron can be used by students in the Department of Nuclear Engineering to perform experiments with low energy proton beams. For example, this cyclotron could be used for experiments involving the Li7(p,n)Be7 reaction, which requires protons with energies on the order of 2 MeV [2].