Highest ion energy observed, over 100 keV

Posted by Lerner on Oct 13, 2010 at 10:40 PM
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In both of the shots with yields over 10¹¹ neutrons, we observed for the first time with FF-1 average ion energies over 100 keV, getting us into the range useful for pB11 fusion.  As before, we have measured the average ion energy by the spread in neutron energies as determined from the time-of-flight detectors.  In shot 93002, we measured an average ion energy of 143 keV and in shot 100102 we measured 108 keV (equivalent to 1.6 billion degrees K and 1.2 billion degrees K respectively).  These are average energies, so they include both the random motion of the ions and any rotational motion they participate in.  Further measurements will determine exactly how much of this energy is random or thermal.  The important thing is that we are confining ions of this energy for tens of ns.  If we can achieve the same conditions with pB¹¹ as we did with D in shot 93002, we would expect a pB¹¹ fusion yield of about 0.5 J.