Compact Permanent Magnet Microwave-Driven Neutron Generator

Permanent magnet microwave-driven neutron generators have been developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The 2.45 GHz microwave signal is directly coupled into the plasma chamber via a microwave window. Plasma is confined in an axial magnetic field produced by the permanent magnets surrounding the plasma chamber. The source chamber is made of aluminum with a diameter of 4 cm and length of 5 cm. A stack of five alumina discs, which are 3 cm in diameter and total length of 3 cm, works as microwave window. Three permanent ring magnets are used to generate the axial magnetic field required for the microwave ion source. Both hydrogen and deuterium plasma have been successfully ignited. With 330W of microwave power, source chamber pressure of 5 mTorr, and an extraction aperture of 2 mm in diameter, the deuterium ion beam measured on the target was approximately 2.5 mA. Over 90% of the ions are atomic. With the ion source at ground potential and titanium target at -40 kV, the analysis of the activated gold foil and calibrated neutron dose monitor both indicated that roughly 107 n/s of D-D neutrons have been produced. The D-D neutron yield can be easily scaled up to 108 n/s when the titanium target is biased at -100 kV.