Pulsed Operation of Spherical Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement Device

Inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion confines high energy ions in potential wells, where their increased energy and density yields a high fusion rate. Studies of the IEC at the University of Illinois (UI) initially concentrated on steady-state operation where neutron yields of ~10⁶ D-D n/s are routinely obtained. However, the development of a pulsed configuration has been undertaken to provide higher neutron yields. Preliminary experiments have demonstrated I² scaling during pulsed operation when the perveance threshold of 2.2 mA/kV^3/2 is exceeded. Based on these results, it appears that the present IEC could be operated with 3-A, 100-kV repetitive pulses with a 10% duty factor to produce neutron yields of ~10¹⁰ neutrons/second.