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Pelletron
 
 
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Pelletron is a type of electrostatic
Electrostatic generator

An electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is a mechanical device that produces static electricity, or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current....
 particle accelerator
Particle accelerator

A particle accelerator is a device that uses electric fields to propel electric charge Elementary particles to high speeds and to contain them....
 similar to a Van de Graaff generator
Van de Graaff generator

A Van de Graaff generator is an Electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to accumulate very high electrostatically stable voltages on a hollow metal globe....
. Pelletrons have been built in many sizes, from small units producing voltages up to 500 kilovolts (kV) and beam energies up to 1 megaelectronvolt
Electronvolt

In physics, the electron volt is a unit of energy. By definition, it is equal to the amount of kinetic energy gained by a single unbound electron when it accelerates through an Electrostatics potential difference of one volt....
 (MeV) of kinetic energy, to the largest system, which has reached a DC voltage of over 25 megavolts and produced ion beams with energies over 900 MeV. Generating electric charge is done by a mechanical transportation system made of a chain of pellets (short conductive tubes connected by links made of insulating material), that is used to build-up high voltages on the Pelletron terminal.






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Pelletron is a type of electrostatic
Electrostatic generator

An electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is a mechanical device that produces static electricity, or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current....
 particle accelerator
Particle accelerator

A particle accelerator is a device that uses electric fields to propel electric charge Elementary particles to high speeds and to contain them....
 similar to a Van de Graaff generator
Van de Graaff generator

A Van de Graaff generator is an Electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to accumulate very high electrostatically stable voltages on a hollow metal globe....
. Pelletrons have been built in many sizes, from small units producing voltages up to 500 kilovolts (kV) and beam energies up to 1 megaelectronvolt
Electronvolt

In physics, the electron volt is a unit of energy. By definition, it is equal to the amount of kinetic energy gained by a single unbound electron when it accelerates through an Electrostatics potential difference of one volt....
 (MeV) of kinetic energy, to the largest system, which has reached a DC voltage of over 25 megavolts and produced ion beams with energies over 900 MeV. Generating electric charge is done by a mechanical transportation system made of a chain of pellets (short conductive tubes connected by links made of insulating material), that is used to build-up high voltages on the Pelletron terminal. The system is enclosed by a pressure vessel filled with insulating
Electrical insulation

An insulator, also called a dielectric, is a material that resists the flow of electric current. An insulating material has atoms with tightly bonded valence electrons....
 gas, such as SF6 (sulfur hexafluoride
Sulfur hexafluoride

Sulfur hexafluoride is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxicity and non-flammable gas . has an octahedral geometry, consisting of six fluorine atoms attached to a central sulfur atom....
), and an evacuated beamline. The voltage gradient between the terminal and ground potential is used to accelerate several kinds of particles, such as positron
Positron

The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. The positron has an electric charge of +1, a spin of 1/2, and the same mass as an electron....
s, electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s and negative and positive ion
Ion

An ion is an atom or molecule which has lost or gained one or more electrons, giving it a positive or negative electrical charge. According to the Bohr_model this will be from or in the outer shield 'n'....
s.

Compared to the Van de Graaff generator, the pellet chain can operate at a higher velocity than a rubber
Rubber

Natural rubber is an elastomer?an Elasticity_ hydrocarbon polymer?that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex , found in the sap of some plants....
 belt, and both the voltage and currents that can be attained are far higher. The chain is charged more uniformly than the belt of a Van de Graaff, so the stability of the terminal voltage and the particle energy is also higher.

Pelletron accelerators are used as analytical tools in many fields, including materials analysis, nuclear physics, semiconductor development and production, pharmaceutical research, and as ultra-sensitive mass spectrometers for carbon dating and the measurement of other rare isotopes.

External links

— Max Planck Institute for Metals Research
Max Planck Institute for Metals Research

The Max Planck Institute for Metals Research is a research institute of the Max Planck Society located in Stuttgart. The institute was founded 1921 as Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Metal Research in Berlin and closed 1932....
, Stuttgart, Germany — National Electrostatics Corporation