Preliminary Study of Beam-Beam Reactions in IEC Fusion Device

Inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion has been studied for practical use as a portable neutron/proton source. In a conventional IEC device using a glow discharge, the neutron/proton production rate is proportional to the cathode current because beam-background reactions are dominant in contrast with the original IEC concept. However, since the neutron/proton production rate of beam-beam reactions is proportional to the cathode current squared, beam-beam reactions have a potential to increase the neutron/proton production rate in a high cathode current region. In this study, new IEC fusion device employing two ion sources based on a hollow cathode discharge was designed for the operation without the glow discharge, and its performance as differential pumping system was tested. From the experiment using the deuterium gas, it was confirmed that the ion sources produced a sufficient pressure difference expected to perform beam-beam reactions.