Study of ions and neutrons from a dense plasma focus instrument by means of nuclear tracks detectors

摘要

A most interesting feature of dense plasma foci is the acceleration of charge particle at energy in the range of MeV per nucleon. Using deuterium gas, this devices produce fusion D-D reactions, generating fast neutron pulses (~ 2.5 MeV). This work describes the studies of this phenomenon in a low energy device (~ 5 kJ) with a 3 cm diameter and 10 cm long, copper inner electrode. The outer electrode is 10 cm in diameter. The device is operated with four 1.863 μF capacitor in parallel at 38 kV. Neutrons and accelerated particles are analyzed with PADC material detectors (CR-39 Lantrack?) for 2.75 Torr of pressure. A detailed study is made of track diameters when the plastic is chemically etched with, 6N KOH at 60°C (±1) for 18 h. Accelerated deuterons in the range of 1 to 10 MeV are observed.