Neutron production with a pyroelectric double-crystal assembly without nano-tip

作者：Tornow W^*; Corse W; Crimi S; Fox J

来源：Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment , 2010, 624(3): 699-707.

DOI：10.1016/j.nima.2010.09.139

• Pyroelectric crystals
• Nuclear fusion
• Neutrons

Two cylindrical LiTaO(3) crystals facing each other s deuterated circular face were exposed to deuterium gas at an ambient pressure of a few mTorr With a distance of about 4 cm between the z(+) and z(-) cut crystal faces neutrons were produced via the (2)H(d n)(3)He fusion reaction upon the heating and cooling of the crystals The 25 MeV neutrons were detected with organic liquid scintillation detectors equipped with neutron-gamma pulse-shape discrimination electronics to reject pulses generated by the intense X-ray flux During the cooling phase of naked crystals deuterium ion-beam (D(2)(+)) energies of up to 400 key were obtained as deduced from the associated electron bremsstrahlung end-point energy The highest electron-beam energy observed during the heating phase was 360 keV With a layer of deuterated polyethylene evaporated on the front face of the crystals the maximal energies were about 10% lower In contrast to earlier studies an electric-field enhancing nano-tip was not employed Neutron yields up to 500 per thermal cycle were observed resulting in a total neutron production yield of about 1 6 x 10(4) neutrons per thermal cycle Our approach has the potential of being substantially improved by reducing the freque

• 出版日期2010-12-21