Neutron Production Mechanism in a Plasma Focus

• J. H. Lee

  Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203

• L. P. Shomo

  National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Virginia 23365

• M. D. Williams

  National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Virginia 23365

• H. Hermansdorfer

  National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Virginia 23365

Abstract

The neutrons emitted by a plasma focus were analyzed by using a time-of-flight method. Flight paths as large as 80 m were used to obtain better than 10% energy resolution. The energy spectrum of neutrons from d—d reactions in the plasma focus shows a sharp onset with average maximum energies of 2.8 and 3.2 MeV in the radial and the axial directions, respectively. The average half-width of the energy spectrum was 270 keV with a shot-to-shot variation between 150 and 400 keV. Simultaneous measurements in the axial and radial directions showed no appreciable difference in the half-widths and thus indicated randomly oriented ion velocities in the plasma. A converging ion model is described which is found to be in agreement with the measured quantities.

Journal

• The Physics of Fluids

  The Physics of Fluids 14 (10), 2217-2223, 1971-10-01

  AIP Publishing

Keywords

• General Engineering

Details

• CRID: 1363951795301104000
• NII Article ID: 30015744353
• DOI: 10.1063/1.1693313
• ISSN: 00319171
• Web Site: https://pubs.aip.org/aip/pfl/article-pdf/14/10/2217/12639086/2217_1_online.pdf
• Data Source:
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles