5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FRONTIERS OF PLASMA PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY

18-22 April 2011, Singapore, Republic of Singapore


NEUTRON YIELD SCALING SATURATION EFFECT IN PLASMA FOCUS DEVICES: THE NEXT STEPS

S.M. Hassan1,2, R.S. Rawat1, S.V. Springham1, T.L. Tan1, S. Lee1, M. Tatarakis2 and P. Lee1

1 Natural Sciences and Science Education, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616
2 Department of Electronics, Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Romanou,3 GR 73133 Chania Greece


Abstract.  Plasma focus fusion yields on a wide range of plasma focus devices have been reported to scale with peak tube current Ip, as Ip3.5. This is consistent with a plasma with the same parameters (density, and temperature) scaling with size of plasma which in theory should give a scaling law of Ip4. Scaling laws with Ipn, where n is greater than 4, is possible if the temperature can be increased with increasing current. The saturation of neutron yields for large or mega-joule devices is explained in terms of the drive parameter and energy considerations. The saturation effect is estimated to be significant for mega-ampere devices with mega-joule energies. For small plasma foci, applications drive the need for high neutron yield rate instead yield per shot. We discuss the limitations of small high repetition rate plasma focus devices and propose new experiments to confirm and break the neutron yield limits of both high and low energy plasma focus devices.