2 MV Van de Graaff Accelerator
Lucy, shown here, was born in 1959 in the shops of High Voltage Engineering. Shortly after birth she moved to the labs of Shell Oil Co. in Texas. In the early 70's Dr. Wendlend Beezhold
arranged for the early entry of Lucy into Montana State University (Thank you Shell Oil and Dr. Beezhold). Lucy found a home in the basement of AJM Johnson Hall (not an official
dormitory, but Lucy was no ordinary student). Lucy was provided with a single beam line to explore the world via PIXE and RBS analysis. In 1980, Dr. Richard Smith added a new beam line and UHV target chamber to allow Lucy to probe surface structures using channeling and backscattering techniques. In 1994 an additional UHV beam line was added so that Lucy could probe for hydrogen atoms ( forward scattering spectroscopy) absorbed into solids.
Lucy runs routinely up to 1.8 MV providing beams of He and H from an rf ion source. In November, 1996, at the age of (shhhh!), the not-so-young Lucy moved to a new laboratory in the EPS building where she
continues as a non-traditional member of the campus community. Lucy made a full recovery from this relocation and
aside from a few minor repairs now and then, she's doing quite well. As a reward for this move, Lucy
was given a third beam line to probe the world of materials via Rutherford scattered particles.
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This page maintained by Dick Smith:
smith@physics.montana.edu
Last updated: May 22, 2002