Popis: |
An inertial electrostatic confinement fusion (IECF) device can produce copious amount of neutrons and protons from D-D and D-3 He fusion reactions using D2 and 3He fuels. The 14.7 MeV protons from D-3He reactions are highly energetic and are expected to be utilized to produce radioisotopes for medical use, for example, positron emission tomography (PET). In order to measure the reaction rate of D-3He, a proton counting system is constructed using a semiconductor diode detector. When used with a metallic foil and a electron deflection magnet, the present proton counting system provides a good signal/noise ratio for 14.7 MeV protons even in the presence of high energy electron beams, hard X-rays, and metallic ions from sputtering. The 14.7 MeV proton production rate has been measured as a function of D2-3He fuel composition and the discharge bias voltage, which agree well with the theoretical predictions |