NEUTRONIC TUBE WITH ION SOURCE WITH ELECTROSTATIC ELECTRONIC CONFINEMENT

摘要

Sealed neutron tube containing a low pressure deuterium-tritium gas mixture from which an ion source 13 provides an ion beam which passes through an accelerating electrode 17 to be projected at high energy onto a target 16 and to produce a reaction of fusion resulting in the emission of neutrons. According to the invention, the ion source is a cold cathode with a purely electrostatic confinement of the ionizing electrons provided by the use of a positively polarized anode, of small collective surface area with respect to the repellent surface of the cavity. cathode within which it is placed, said cavity constituting the internal part of the cathode 15 in which the electrons e2 which oscillate along trajectories of very great lengths with respect to the dimensions of said cathode cavity ionize the gas and form a ionized gas from which the ion beam 22 is extracted for standard ion optic devices 17. /P P Application to neutron tubes.