Neutron Production and Ionization Efficiency in A Gridded IEC Device at High Currents

Experiments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) are exploring high current operation in a gridded, Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) device. Until recently all IEC operation has been done at relatively low currents. Calculations indicate that much higher voltages and higher currents are needed to form deep potential wells as required ultimately for reactor applications. Recent experiments have achieved 8×10⁸n/s at peak of 100 microsecond pulses at a cathode-grid potential of 50 kV and 17 amps of current (vs. kA currents projected for a power reactor).