PULSED OPERATION OF SPHERICAL INERTIAL-ELECTROSTATIC CONFINEMENT DEVICE

Inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion confines high energy i ons in potential wells, where their increased energy and density Yield s a high fusion rate. Studies of the IEC at the University of Illinois (UI) initially concentrated on steady-state operation where neutron y ields of similar to 10 degrees D-D n/s are routinely obtained. However . the development of a pulsed configuration has been undertaken to pro vide higher neutron yields. Preliminary experiments have demonstrated I-2 scaling during pulsed operation when the perveance threshold of 2. 2 mA/KV3/2 is exceeded. Based on these results, it appears that the pr esent IEC could be operated with 3-A, 100-kV repetitive pulses with a 10% duty factor to produce neutron yields of similar to 10(10) neutron s/second.