- #1
Thundagere
- 159
- 0
I'm wondering about linear particle accelerators. THey're something I've been researching for a while, and I found two conflicting ideas. On one source, it states that all you essentially need is a long tube and a high voltage power supply. So, if I had a voltage multiplier and assigned the positive end to one end of the tube, and the negative end from where my electron source is (let's say I'm accelerating electrons), then all I would need is a vacuum chamber and the electrons would accelerate.
Another source, however, states that you need "drift tubes" and need to apply something like an RF antenna source coupled to your high voltage power source to constantly change the charge on each individual drift tube. I was originally under the impression that one only needed to do this for a cyclotron. Is it necessary to do so for a linac as well?
And on two other notes:
a) Is it better for me to study Linacs first, or cyclotrons? I'm thinking Linac would be much easier to study, but...
b) IF I had a cyclotron, could I simply hook it up to alternate current, or a wall circuit (besides the fact it's dangerous :) ), and let the back and forth flow handle the changing? Or could I get a waveform generator and somehow connect it to my high voltage source, then connect it to the Ds? Would that work?
Another source, however, states that you need "drift tubes" and need to apply something like an RF antenna source coupled to your high voltage power source to constantly change the charge on each individual drift tube. I was originally under the impression that one only needed to do this for a cyclotron. Is it necessary to do so for a linac as well?
And on two other notes:
a) Is it better for me to study Linacs first, or cyclotrons? I'm thinking Linac would be much easier to study, but...
b) IF I had a cyclotron, could I simply hook it up to alternate current, or a wall circuit (besides the fact it's dangerous :) ), and let the back and forth flow handle the changing? Or could I get a waveform generator and somehow connect it to my high voltage source, then connect it to the Ds? Would that work?