Quote:
Originally Posted by IROC
The beam is actually protons. We start off with H- ions, accelerate them to about 90% of the speed of light and then strip the electrons off leaving a proton beam. We sell the electrons on ebay.  We then "accumulate" bunches of protons in an accumulator ring and then fire pulses of protons at ~60Hz at a liquid mercury target. The beam is nominally 70mm high by 200 mm wide. The energetic protons "spall" neutrons off of the mercury molecules which are then moderated (slowed down) and used for condensed matter physics experiments.
As you can imagine, the proton irradiation wrecks havoc on the mechanical properties of most common materials, so our target module wears out and we have to replace it. The module is about as radioactive as the core of Chernobyl right when it exploded, so it is a challenging job, needless to say.
In other words, as Trekkor would say, "it's all guesses"... |
Protons, of course, kind of hard to accelerate neutrons in a magnetic ring. D'oh! But then, how do you slow them down? Some sort of medium?
Wow, 70mm X 200mm is a pretty big spread! I was thinking pencil lead sized.
I'm sure stripping neutrons off mercury atoms wreaks havoc indeed. That's the understatement of the day. How many can you strip off one atom before the atom becomes way unstable?
Cool stuff! Keep on guessing!
