1932/07/01 by John Cockcroft, E. T. S. Walton · 186 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Particle accelerators and beam dynamics #Proton #Range (aeronautics) #Ion #Atomic physics #Particle (ecology) #Electron #Physics #Volt #α particles #Radiation #Charged particle #Nuclear physics #Materials science #Voltage
paper · doi:10.1098/rspa.1932.0133
published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character 137(831), 229-242 (Royal Society)
openalex publication_date 1932/07/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/19
Abstract In a previous paper we have described a method of producing high velocity positive ions having energies up to 700,000 electron volts. We first used this method to determine the range of high-speed protons in air and hydrogen and the results obtained will be described in a subsequent paper. In the present communication we describe experiments which show that protons having energies above 150,000 volts are capable of disintegrating a considerable number of elements. Experiments in artificial disintegration have in the past been carried out with streams of α-particles as the bombarding particles; the resulting transmutations have in general been accompanied by the emission of a proton and in some cases γ-radiation. The present experiments show that under the bombardment of protons, α-particles are emitted from many elements; the disintegration process is thus in a sense the reverse process to the α-particle transformation.