Harvey Summers called my attention to a miniature electron accelerator that was built for an exhibit at the Trocadéro’s Gardens in Paris, France. The device is an exhibit that was shown to the public for the first time during the CNRS exhibition “Entrée en matière” in November 2011.
Proton Synchrotron of the type used at the Anneau de Collision d’Orsay
This model was built to serve as a general introduction to the understanding of the principles underlying accelerator operations in general and more specifically colliders. The public can actually see and manipulate the controls and therefore easily grasp what is happening. The model is a small electron mockup of the Orsay proton storage ring (Anneau de Collision d’Orsay, ACO) at LAL. ACO was in service as a collider from 1965 to 1980 with an energy of 500 MeV for each beam. The real accelerator is now a museum, listed on the French heritage register.
Looks like an excellent diy Physics project! Please share any technical/construction information that you may have on this or a similar project!
There’s an additional image and contact email here:
http://sciencesaco.fr/?Grande-ronde-des-electrons-un
Can’t find details on who built it or how they did it.
I think that this is the injector plans. Wouldn’t a hot cathode be more effective?
http://stemak.org/sites/default/files/DIY-Electron-Accelerator-A-Cathode-Ray-Tube-in-a-.pdf
Next trick is to figure out how to build the accelerator ring.
Thanks Harvey,
I’m not sure those are the plans for the actual injector used in the demonstrator at Trocadero’s. A hot cathode may indeed be used if they have thoroughly degassed the system before backfilling with very low pressure helium to enable visualization. This is done in the Tel-Atomic Fine Beam Tube: http://www.telatomic.com/tubes/fine_beam.html
Please note that our book “Exploring Quantum Physics Through Hands-On Projects” contains much more sophisticated plans for glow-discharge electron guns than the one using a wine bottle. For example, please see http://www.diyphysics.com/2012/01/05/d-i-y-maltese-cross-cathode-ray-tube-supplementary-picture/
Cheers,
David