Cyclotron
Ciclotrón
- Date
- 1930–1932 · confidence high
- Place
- Berkeley, California, United States
- Credited to
- Ernest Lawrence and M. Stanley Livingston (University of California, Berkeley)
- People
- 👤 Ernest Lawrence1901–1958👤 Milton S. Livingston1905–1986
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
Circular particle accelerator that uses a magnetic field and an alternating electric field to reach high energies in a small space. It opened up large-scale experimental nuclear physics.
Rolf Widerøe published the resonance linear accelerator (1928) that inspired Lawrence.
What it led to
- Discovery of transuranic elements (plutonium, 1940)
- Medical radioisotopes and nuclear medicine
- Big Science and giant accelerators (CERN)
Built on
Made possible
- Kerst's betatron1940
- Curium1944
- Synchrotron1944-1945
- Atomic bomb1945
- Positron emission tomography (PET)1975
- PET scan
- Electromagnetic separation of uranium (calutron)