Effects of Grid Cathode Structure on a Low-Input-Power Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Device

Abstract

The effects of grid cathode structure on a low-input-power inertial electrostatic confinement fusion (IECF) device were studied to achieve a high neutron production rate (NPR). An increase in geometric transparency of the grid cathode by decreasing the number of wire rings is known to mean that the recirculation ion current is increased. We expected that this increase would contribute to an increase in the NPR. However, our experimental results showed that the NPR in the low-input-power IECF device (V ¼ 10:0{30:0 kV, I ¼ 40:0 mA) increased by decreasing the transparency. We clarified this tendency by analyzing the equipotential lines near the grid. As a result, we found that the distortion of these lines near the grid was lessened by decreasing the transparency. Lessening the distortion of these lines, rather than increasing the in recirculation ion current, was effective in increasing the NPR in the low-input-power IECF device. In addition, we find that the effect of mitigating these lines depended on the applied voltage.

Neutron measurement during crushing of LiNbO3crystals in D2and H2atmospheres

“…Aside from the mechano-nuclear reaction, Taniuchi et al 18) and Taira 19) carried out an experiment on inertial electrostatic confinement fusion. 20,21) They observed neutron emission rates of 10 2 -10 5 s −1 at low accelerating voltages of 10-30 kV applied by a DC-power supply between a spherical electrode of 2 cm diameter and a cylindrical chamber of 20 cm diameter under D 2 atmosphere at 0.1-1 Pa. 4.1.1 Estimation of generated voltage.…”

Optical emission from a ‘beam mode’ transparent cathode glow discharge

“…Glow discharges in which ions and neutrals are significantly energetic are relatively uncommon, and have mostly been studied in IEC for non-power fusion applications. Early IEC work was conducted at lower pressures [3][4][5][6], but since a simple discharge source was developed at the University of Illinois in the 1990s [7][8][9][10][11] research has been directed towards better understanding and improving the efficiency of benchtop fusion devices [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31], since near-term applications increase with performance. These generally use a spherical or cylindrical hollow wire-grid cathode, operated either as self-sustained 'transparent cathode' discharge (TCD) or with an ionisation source.…”