Question

State limitations of cyclotron.

Answer 1

Following are the limitations of cyclotron:

1. A cyclotron is unable to accelerate neutral particles such as neutrons.
2. Electrons, due to their small mass, cannot be accelerated by a cyclotron.
3. As they gain a small amount of energy in the cyclotron, they rapidly reach high speeds, causing them to go out of sync due to the oscillating electric field.
4. The positively charged particles having large mass i.e. ions cannot move at limitless speed in a cyclotron.
   `m= m_0/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)`
   where,
   m₀ = mass of ion at rest
   m = mass of ion at velocity v
   c = velocity of light