Study on an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion as a portable neutron source

The scaling of neutron generation versus ion current is important in evaluating the prospect of an inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) as a neutron source. In this paper, the scaling of neutron generation versus ion current, I, based on the results of both the experiments and the numerical simulations is discussed. The experiments shows the scaling of I2, while the numerical simulation gives the stronger scaling of I3. The regime of current in the present experiments is limited by the capability of the available power supplies. As the current increases, the potential structure is numerically shown to be more unstable. The intermittent peaking of the density is accompanied with unstable potential behaviors and brings about the higher density in time averaging. This may be a reason why the numerical simulation gives a stronger scaling versus ion current. Experiments in higher ion current regime may be required to verify the scaling estimated by the numerical simulation. (orig.)