Linear Accelerator
A linear particle accelerator I am helping to build
At the beginning of my junior year I heard that another student was working on building a linear particle accelerator and jumped at the opportunity to join the project. When i first joined the project was using a oil diffusion pump for high vac and I decided that i would help to upgrade and overhaul the vacuum system as well as anything else that I could help with. A few weeks later i heard from my professor that there was an old SEM that was bound for the dumpster and that it was for the most part free for the taking.
Old vacuum system
Over the course of a few hours one night a few of us went and fully dissembled the SEM and took as many parts we deemed could be even remotely helpful to the project which included numerous valves, chambers, and even a couple ion pumps and a turbo.
Unfortunately the turbo that was on the SEM didn't have a controller but the lab I work at, RIT Semiconductor Nanofabrication Lab, very generously donated one with a controller to our project. It had a small nick on the sealing surface which we filled with faraday wax.
While it did have a controller it didn't have a remote which required some jumper wires
Turbo on and running but definitely have a leak almost certainly at the nick on the turbo and a few other places. Will soon be helium leak detecting hopefully.
Accelerator in its current state