2024/07/05 by Allan Xi Chen, Chen, Allan Xi, Nai-Wei Liu +17
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fusion materials and technologies #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2407.04197
openalex publication_date 2024/07/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We demonstrate a compact ion beam device capable of accelerating H+ and D+ ions up to 75keV energy, on to a solid target, with sufficient beam current to study fusion reactions. The ion beam system uses a microwave driven plasma source to generate ions that are accelerated to high energy with a direct current (DC) acceleration structure. The plasma source is driven by pulsed microwaves from a solid-state radiofrequency (RF) amplifier, which is impedance matched to the plasma source chamber at the ISM band frequency (2.4-2.5GHz). The plasma chamber is held at high positive DC potential and is isolated from the impedance matching structure (at ground potential) by a dielectric-filled gap. To facilitate the use of high-energy-particle detectors near the target, the plasma chamber is biased to a high positive voltage, while the target remains grounded. A target loaded with deuterium is used to study D-D fusion and a B4C or LaB6 target is used to study p-11B fusion. Detectors include solid-state charged particle detector and a scintillation fast neutron detector. The complete ion beam system can fit on a laboratory table and is a useful tool for teaching undergraduate and graduate students about the physics of fusion.