INVESTIGATION Oh THE POSSIBLE PRODUCTION OF A NANOSECOND PULSE OF 14-MeV NEUTRONS AND THE ACCELERATION OF IONS BY 7-kA PULSED ELECTRON BEAMS

摘要

An attempt to produce a nanosecond burst of 14-MeV neutrons with the T(d, n) 4He reaction by accelerating deuterons with available 7-kA electron beams is reported. Acceleration of ions by high-current (5- to 200-kA), relativistic (0.5- to 2-MeV) electron beams is investi¬gated. Previous experimental and theo¬retical work is reviewed and compared.nIn experiments with two 7-kA electron beams of energies 600 keV and 2 MeV, no ion current greater than 0.01 A was ob¬served. The negative result suggests a strong current dependence for the accelerat¬ing mechanism. Another experiment is pro¬posed to utilize the dual-mechanism theory by incorporating an external magnetic field and a moderate-current (7-kA) elec¬tron beam to accelerate the ions.