The cyclotron facility contains a cascade of three accelerators that delivers a proton beam of 590 MeV energy at a current up to 2.4 mA (1.4 MW). The proton beam is pre-accelerated in a Cockcroft-Walton electrostatic column to an energy of 870 keV and this is increased to 72 MeV in the 4-sector Injector 2 cyclotron. Final acceleration of the main beam to 590 MeV occurs in the large 8-sector Ring Cyclotron, from which the beam is transported to the experimental hall.
PSI provides beam time for particle physics and other experiments. Its unique specialty is very high intensity pion and muon beams of momenta up to a few hundred MeV/c. These secondary beam lines (picture) are maintained jointly by the Laboratory for Particle Physics and the Division of Large Research Facilities.
A powerful source for ultracold neutrons is operating at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in Switzerland.
It is serving three beamports and currently delivering about 15 Million UCN every 330s in regular operation.
Under the contract between European Space Agency (ESA) and
the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) the Proton Irradiation Facility (PIF)
was constructed for testing of spacecraft components.
The facility is designed in a user friendly manner and is commonly
available. It enables generating of realistic proton spectra encountered
at any potential orbit in space. PIF is a member of the ESA supported
European Component Irradiation Facilities (ECIF).
