Hello,

I am building a Cockroft-Walton / electrostatic particle accelerator for a science fair project, and I was wondering if anyone could look at my design and see if it's correct.

Going from the top up: The top of the accelerator is a spherical steel terminal, like a VDG generator terminal. This is charged from the positive output of a Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier. Inside this is the proton supply and it's power source.

The proton supply is a hydrogen discharge tube, integrated into an aluminium flange ,for connection to the top of the accelerator tube.

From the terminal comes a long glass tube, inside of which are three brass drift tubes. The top tube is connected to the top terminal, the second one down is connected to the middle of the Cockroft-Walton multiplier (still positive, just half the top terminal voltage).

The bottom tube is connected to the start of the CW multiplier, ground.

The target is housed at the base of the accelerator in a small target cave, where the vacuum port is connected. There is a small mica window in this fixture, to allow radiation monitoring.

Will it work better, with external equipotential rings connected to the drift tubes?

Will this design work at all?
Thanks,
Max