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  1. Discover Diamond
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  5. Vacuum

Vacuum

Navigate between the simulations

0. Synchrotron > 1. Electron Gun > 2. The Linac > 3. Dipole Magnets > 4. Vacuum > 5. Undulator > 6. Beamlines

Instructions

  1. Use the first set of buttons to adjust the residual pressure.
     
  2. Use the second set of buttons to adjust the beam energy.

In Summary

An electron beam travelling through air will quickly lose electrons as they collide with air molecules and lose energy or get scattered. To keep the electron beam circulating in the storage ring, the tube they travel in must be kept at a very high vacuum. Try increasing the beam energy and changing the residual pressure to see how this affects the electron beam.

In more depth

It is never possible to create a perfect vacuum, there will always be some residual molecules left in the system. The electrons accidentally hitting the residual gas molecules will lose energy and will be eventually lost in the chamber wall. However, the vacuum at Diamond is good enough to keep the beam circulating for more than 10 hours before it needs to be refilled!

It is worth noting that usually the mass of electrons is thousands of times less that that of the air molecules. However at very high velocities (close to the speed of light) relativistic effects mean that the mass of the electrons can become greater than the mass of the air molecules!

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Diamond Light Source

Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.

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Diamond Light Source Ltd
Diamond House
Harwell Science & Innovation Campus
Didcot
Oxfordshire
OX11 0DE

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Registered in England and Wales at Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom. Company number: 4375679. VAT number: 287 461 957. Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number: GB287461957003.

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