Intense pulsed neutron emission from a compact pyroelectric driven accelerator

A compact pyroelectric accelerator with intense pulsed D-D neutron emission with rates of >[10.sup.10] n/s during the pulse, pulse widths of approximately hundreds of nanoseconds and neutron yields of greater than 10000 per pulse is described. The accelerator consisting of a small pyroelectric LiTa[O.sub.3] crystal that provides the accelerating voltage and an independent compact spark plasma ion source could find potential applications of pyroelectric based neutron generators.