A “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back” Heavy‐Ion Accelerator

By varying the equilibrium charge state of ions it may be possible to accelerate them back and forth through a tandem Van de Graaff many times, with a net gain in energy each time. Günther Hortig, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, has proposed a design for such an accelerator. It would use the fact that over a rather wide energy range, ions passed through a gas stripper have a smaller positive equilibrium charge than ions passed through a denser stripper.