Tabletop and compact fusion sources are in much demand because of their efficiency in producing mono- energetic particles that find application in various societal usages. Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion (IECF) based source, in particular, stands as one of the vital sources for producing neutrons, protons, X-rays, etc. The most promising applications of the device include neutron activation analyses (NAA), neutron radiography, medical isotope production, explosive detection, etc. IECF is basically a fusion concept wherein the lighter fuel ions (deuterium, tritium) are trapped in a converging electrostatic field inside a cylindrical or spherical geometry. A cylindrical IECF device is in operation at our center and it has been emitting a copious amount of 2.45 MeV DD fusion neutrons. The device primarily consists of a cylindrical wire grid electrode assembly housed inside a cylindrical vacuum chamber, a gas insertion system, a high voltage feedthrough, and a high voltage power supply of negative polarity. On the application of a high negative potential of few tens of kV (～ 80 kV) to the inner grid of the device, the energetic ions overcome the coulomb barrier force and thus fuse together to produce neutrons of the order 10~6 n s~(-1). The emitted neutrons from the device are characterized by employing various detectors such as neutron area monitor, He-3 proportional counter, bubble dosimeters etc. The neutrons emitted from the device were utilized for the detection of explosive. The detailed results are discussed in the paper.
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