DEUTERON-DEUTERON FUSION BY IMPACT OF HEAVY-WATER CLUSTERS ON DEUTERATED SURFACES

The apparatus and techniques for producing, accelerating, and measuring beams of 200-325-keV singly charged cluster ions containing up to hundreds of D2O molecules are described. The diagnostics used to ascertain beam quality via secondary electron distributions are discussed. Results on DD fusion obtained when (C2D4)n, TiD, and ZrD1.65 targets are bombarded with D2O cluster ions are presented, including the dependence of fusion rates on target, beam energy, and cluster size. DD fusion events are also reported for H2O clusters impinging on (C2D4)n, but the rate is only 5% of that found with D2O clusters of the same size and energy. Extensive tests performed to exclude artifacts as the cause of the observed DD fusions are described and discussed. © 1990 American Chemical Society.