An indigenously designed and fabricated Tabletop Accelerator (TTA) delivered the first beam on target on Tuesday at the Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences (MCNS), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal.
Designed by Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New Delhi, this is the first University based Tabletop Accelerator to become functional within the country.
This project was undertaken by the Nuclear Physics Group at Manipal Center for Nuclear Sciences, in technical co-operation with IUAC. The Manipal team was led by Dr. Prasanta Kumar Rath assisted by design engineer Pratyusha Dittakavi in co-operation with Dr. Safvan and Dr. Rajkumar of IUAC.
The Nuclear Physics group of the centre currently specialises in heavy element synthesis and neutron physics. MAHE Vice Chancellor Dr. H Vinod Bhat welcomed the new development and said, "With this new addition to our experimental facilities at MCNS, we look forward to expanding our work into the field of accelerator science as well as using this as a tool for exploring new directions in Research & development across a range of fields relevant to the future. We would of course like to build on these skills, and in time, we expect that an upgraded and revised version of this accelerator will be available at Manipal for researchers at MAHE and across the country."
Dr. Mohini Gupta, Director, MCNS thanked Dr. Kanjilal, Director, IUAC for the technical co-operation and said that the table top machine provided a good introduction to accelerators and associated instrumentation for students who would now have access to a unique and versatile tool for scientific study. Dr. Rath indicated that numerous facility tests are underway, after which the accelerator is expected to be commissioned. He added that many experiments are in the planning stage and post-commissioning, the Manipal Tabletop Accelerator will be used for both teaching and research.
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