Initial results from the Six Ion Gun Fusion Experiment

The Six Ion Gun Fusion Experiment (SIGFE) is an advanced inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion device that has been developed in an effort to increase steady-state nuclear fusion rates of IEC devices by multiple orders of magnitude over the current rates of 2 x 10⁸ neutrons per second for D-D and 5 x 10⁷ protons per second for D-³He reactions. This experiment investigates the space-charge physics of spherically converging 100 keV to 300 keV ions and cold electrons. Solutions of the Poisson equation presented in several early IEC publications predict the formation of electrostatic potential wells at the center of a device of this type. Initial results of how the fusion rate of the D-D reactions in SIGFE scales with applied accelerating voltage, ion current, and background gas pressure will be presented.