Fabrication of metal shells

Small hollow metal spheres are needed as targets for particle-beam fusion experiments and as the inner fuel container for multi-shell targets. For the multishell application, shells fabricated of materials with high atomic numbers, e.g., gold, are of particular interest because they may effectively reduce preheating of the fuel. Because the shells must also contain the fuel mixture (deuterium and tritium) at high pressures, high strength materials, e.g., iron, are also of considerable interest. With the objective of proof of principle we have investigated several techniques of fabricating shells of metal or materials containing large fractions of high atomic number elements. These techniques, our experimental results and their evaluation are presented