First you have to understand two basic points about electric and magnetic fields and their effects

on charged particles. 1. When a charged particle is in a electric field it feels a force that accelerates it in the direction of the field (or in the direction opposite to that direction if it is a negatively charged particle). If this force is in the direction that the particle is already traveling then clearly this acceleration speeds up its motion and thus adds energy (and this is what we want our accelerator to do). 2. When a charged particle is moving through a magnetic field region it feels a force that is perpendicular to its direction of motion (and also perpendicular to the magnetic field). Such a force makes the particle change direction but does not change its speed. This means that in a large enough region of magnetic field the particle will travel in a circle. The size of the circle depends on the speed of the particle and the strength of the magnetic field. Now how can we use these two facts to design an accelerator --a cyclotron is one example. We make the region of magnetic field by having a pair of large flat magnets, one above the other, with opposite poles facing, so there is magnetic field pointing down from the upper magnet towards the lower one. We arrange two such regions, each one D-shaped (when looked at from above) with the straight sides of the two D's facing one another (i.e. one D is backwards). Now we have a place where a moving electric charge (or rather a bunch of such charges) goes around half a circle in one D, then goes straight ahead till it reaches the other D, and makes another semicircle in that one, and so on. So now what we have to do is arrange to have an electric field turn on in the right direction (and at the right time) to give the charges a bit of a push each time they cross the gap between the two D's. You can see that the electric field has to reverse its direction while the charge is going around the semicircle inside the D, so that when the charges cross the gap again in the opposite direction they are again accelerated a little. You also need to build a chamber that you can evacuate to very low air pressure in the entire region where your charged particles are traveling -- between the two pairs of D-shaped magnets and in the gap between them. This is because you will keep losing your accelerated particles if they collide with air molecules, so you want as little air (or anything else) as possible inside your accelerator. Because the particle is speeding up each time it crosses from one D to the other it travels in a spiral path with increasing radius. So the limit on what energy you can get with such a machine is given by the size of the D-shaped magnets, and the vacuum-chamber between them. This limitation makes it very expensive to build a high energy cyclotron and so modern high energy circular accelerators are built using a different design, known as a synchrotron.

The basic physics principle is the same, you use magnet to make the particle go in a circle, and regions with electric field in them (usually radio frequency or microwave cavities) to accelerate the particles. You make the vacuum chamber a tube that goes in a circle. Then you must adjust the magnet strength (these are electromagnets) as the particles speed up to keep the same radius for their circular path. There is a limited range of energy over which this can be achieved, so if you look for example at the Fermilab accelerator (see www.fnal.gov) you can see they have a series of rings of increasing radius and then feed the particles from a smaller ring to a larger one once they reach the highest energy that can be made to circulate in the small ring.

Technologies for Diagnosis and Therapy

Cyclotrons belong to a class of machines called particle accelerators. There are two basic types of particle accelerators linear accelerators (linacs) and cyclotrons. Both types accelerate charged particles to high velocities, and the particle beams can then be directed at targets for research, radioisotope production, and other purposes The most important accelerators for radioisotope production are cyclotrons. Cyclotrons have a number of advantages over reactors for radioisotope production, such as safety, cheaper capital, operating and decommissioning costs, and they generate far less radioactive waste than reactors. For these and other reasons, cyclotrons have assumed an increasing and important role in radioisotope production. CURRENT USE OF CYCLOTRONS About 150 200 cylcotrons are operating worldwide. About 35 of these are operated by radiopharmaceutical companies and are used solely for the production of medical radioisotopes. Another 25 are used in part for radioisotope production. However, most of the above cyclotrons are not of sufficient power to produce large

quantities of Iodine 123, which is the focus of Quasar Groups main initiative and to solve a severe shortage in the United States and to a lesser extent in Europe. The type of cyclotron that is needed for this project are 30 MeV (million electron volts) that can produce large quantities of Iodine 123 utilizing Xe 124 gas target systems. This method produces an extremely high purity product and is the most easily managed compared to lower energy production methods utilizing Te 123 solid targets. HOW CYCLOTRONS WORK A cyclotron consists of two large dipole magnets designed to produce a semi-circular region of uniform magnetic field, pointing uniformly down. These are called Dees because of their D-Shape. The two Dees are placed back to back with their straight sides parallel but slightly separated. An oscillating voltage is applied to produce an electric field across this gap. Particles injected into the magnetic field region of a Dee trace out a semicircular path until they reach the gap. The electric field in the gap then accelerates the particles as they pass across it. The particles now have a higher energy so they follow a semi-circular path in the next Dee with larger radius so reach the gap again. The electric field frequency must be just right so the direction of the field has reversed by their time of arrival at the gap. The field in the gap accelerates them again and they enter the first Dee again. Thus the particles gain energy as they spiral around. The trick is that as they speed up, they trace a larger arc and so they always take the same time to reach the gap.This way a constant frequency electric field oscillation continues to always accelerate them across the gap. The limitation on the energy that can be reached in such a device depends on the size of the magnets that form the Dee and the strength of their magnetic fields. To learn more about cyclotron technology, visit the website of one of the major manufacturers Ebco Technologies or IBA Worldwide.