High Energy Electron Accelerators

The Cambridge Electron Accelerator is now in full-scale operation for research at energies up to 6 Bev, five times higher than earlier electron accelerators. The machine, a synchrotron, uses a ring of 48 alternating gradient magnets in a circle 236 feet in diameter. Electrons are accelerated by RF fields produced in a set of sixteen resonant cavities spaced around the orbit. The frequency used is 476 Mc/s, the 360th harmonic of the orbital frequency. Injection of 30-Mev electrons is accomplished by using a linear accelerator operating at 2855 Mc/s. The main machine accepts and-accelerates to maximum energy beam currents of up to 1.2 x 1012 electrons/sec. The quality of the beam is fully as good as that from a linear accelerator. The CEA laboratory operates five days a week on a three-shift basis and has a staff of 160 people.