Neutron production and ionization efficiency in a gridded IEC device at high currents

Experiments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) are ex ploring high current operation in a gridded, Inertial Electrostatic Confine ment (IEC) device. Until recently all IEC operation has been done at relati vely low currents. Calculations indicate that much higher voltages and high er currents are needed to form deep potential wells as required ultimately for reactor applications. Recent experiments have achieved 8x10(8)n/s at pe ak of 100 microsecond pulses at a cathode-grid potential of 50 kV and 17 am ps of current (vs. kA currents projected for a power reactor).