Inertial electrostatic confinement fusion device with an ion source using a magnetron discharge

An inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion device is studied for a compact fusion neutron/proton source using a built-in magnetron ion source. The addition of an ion source to the IEC fusion device enhances fusion reactions by allowing a lower operating gas pressure and by providing a beam-like ion energy distribution. Under lower gas pressures, charge exchange collisions are reduced, resulting in longer ion lifetime and thus enhanced ion re-circulation. The performance characteristics of this IEC fusion device found in the experiments were compared with the numerical calculations and found qualitatively in good agreement. An improvement in normalized neutron yield (defined as neutron yield divided by the product of grid current and operating gas pressure), more than a factor of two, has been observed compared with the conventional glow-discharge driven IEC fusion device.