AAWSAP DIRD, Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion, March 2010

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Section II. Select Experiments
In this section some select experiments are briefly reviewed with the main focus on ion­
injected IECs. Beginning with the early Hirsch gun injected IEC experiments that are
important both historically and from a physics perspective. Other experiments aimed at
"spin-off" applications are then covered, followed by a discussion of several recent gun
injection type studies. Readers interested in more detail should consult references.
In Reference 2.1, Robert Hirsh disclosed experiment al results with very high D-T
neutron rates from an ion-injected IEC shown if Figure 2.1.
Note that six ion "guns" were used to create a low energy ion beam that entered the
chamber and was trapped via electrostatic structures to form the potential well
structure desired for IEC operation. However, differential pumping was not used so
beam-background and charge-exchange collision must have still played a significant
role in this experiment. Still Hirsch obtained "record" neutron rates for DT fusion shown
in Figure 2.2.
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Figure 2.1. The "Historic" Early IEC Ion Injection
Figure 2.2. Neutron Rates Measured With the IEC of
Experiment of R. Hirsch Working With Philo
Figure 2,1 Exceeded 109 OT n/s at 150 kV. For
Farnsworth
perspective, note that, as discussed later, UIUC IEC gridded
devices routinely produce 108 DD n/s at "' 80 kV. This is
sl ightly above Hirsch's result but uses higher ion currents.
The key point about this remarkable result is that the neutron production rates are well
about that predicted by simple beam-background fusion reactions, implying that benefit
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