Acceleration Devices for High Energy Physics

The major accelerator facilities make use of several types of devices to build up the energy of the particles. Some of the types of apparatus used are:

• Cockroft-Walton accelerators: high DC voltage device which accelerates ions through steps of voltage created by a voltage divider.
• van de Graaf accelerators: charge is transported by an insulating belt to a conductor which builds in voltage as a result of charge collection.
• Cyclotrons: An oscillating electric field repetitively accelerates charged particles across the gap between semicircular magnetic field regions.
• Synchrocyclotrons: cyclotrons with variable-frequency accelerating voltages to track relativistic effects.
• Betatrons: electron accelerators in a circular geometry with acceleration achieved by magnetic flux increase.
• Synchrotrons: large ring accelerators where the particles move in an evacuated tube at constant radius, accelerated by radio frequency applications with synchronous magnetic field increases to maintain the constant radius.
• Linear Accelerators: linear arrays of radio frequency acceleration cells.