The Mainz Microtron (German name: Mainzer Mikrotron), abbreviated MAMI, is an electron accelerator of the microtron type, in which electrons are accelerated to relativistic velocities. It is operated by the Institute for Nuclear Physics of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and located 10m to 15m directly below the Institute. Its purpose is the generation of polarized electron and photon beams. MAMI B, the third stage of MAMI, is the world's largest microtron as of 2006.
In contrast to many high energy accelerators the Mainz Microtron produces a continuous electron beam, which is very well defined both in terms of the electrons energies and their position. In accelerator physics this quality is referred to as a small phase space ellipse. Where bigger accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider are used for discovering new particles, the electron beam produced by MAMI is used for precision measurements of the internal structure of the neutron and other hadrons. Another research area is the production of high quality X-ray beams and their practical application in medicine and material science.
MAMI consists of:
- MAMI A1 (output energy: 14 MeV)
- MAMI A2 (output energy: 180 MeV)
- MAMI B (output energy: 855 MeV)
- MAMI C (output energy: 1.5 GeV)