New science division: Particle physics

[CatBalls]

Another thought I had would be that you could use grills placed over the ends of conveyor belts to build charge like a Van de Graaff generator. Electrostatic accelerators powered by van de graaff generators can be used for ion implantation in silicon- the process used to make semiconductors, if that gives you any ideas.

Evacuating or filling the beamlines with gas must require a working pump, right?

What about a button to purge the accelerator and direct the energy off into space?

Yes, a real accelerator would typically use multiple pumps- a roughing pump to get most of the gas out then a turbo pump to get to the real low vacuum levels.

If you are responding specifically about electrostatic accelerators for ion implantation, the button would just need to be a short circuit between the ends of the charging circuit. Unless you are maybe talking about purging the injection chamber? It's possible and even common to run sub-MeV accelerators without shielding gas, so I guess you could just have a feed tube and a purge tube. Sealed systems under insulating gas typically have a high pressure tank somewhere inside since not much is really needed to generate ions. Think fist-size tank.

Any charged beam can be directed with a sufficiently strong magnetic field, though we are talking like 10T to get about a 20 degree bend over a few feet for a half MeV beam.