Can You Build a Particle Accelerator at Home?

In summary, a particle accelerator can be built at home, but it is not easy and requires careful measurements and construction.
  • #36
Hello,

I am a second year student industrial engineer in nuclear technology and I am looking for some blueprints / building plans so I can make a 3D drawing of a particle accelerator. If someone can give me a blueprint that I can build myself I would be even more happy cause then I would make it my bachelor project in my third trimester.

I hope someone can help me!
 
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  • #37
Hello,

Just wondering what kind of pressures are required for experimentation with a linear accelerator similar to the one described here:

http://www.ifpan.edu.pl/firststep/aw-works/fsII/alt/altineller.pdf

I know they say it must be at 0.1 microns - would it still be posssible to experiment at pressures at about 10 microns? Vacuum pumps that go to those pressures are hard to find, and very expensive, particularly here in England.

Also, has anyone tried using a Tesla coil to power a linac, or would a Cockcroft-Walton multiplier be a better way to go? I can't find much on Tesla coil particle accelerators.
 
  • #38
There are many questions here about construction of an accelerator but my information is lacking in measurement methods. For instance, proton to target timing so that velocity can be calculated. High voltage measurement methods, possible sources for such equipment. My searches on the web don't take this aspect of construction into account. Oh, as I remember the article in Scientific American, Amateur Scientist, was for the construction of a Crookes tube and one way to test it was to expose a piece of photo paper to take a shadowgraph of the target plate.
 
  • #39
This thread is almost a decade old.
 
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