Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Looking for Particles
Date: Oct 30, 11:55 pm
Poster: Richard Hester

On Oct 30, 11:55 pm, Richard Hester wrote:

One good way to sidestep the stripping vs. fusion brouhaha might be to look for something besides neutrons. A semiconductor detector located in a side arm of the fusor with a magnet to deflect the pesky electrons could be used to look for charged particles (protons, in this case) that otherwise wouldn't make it through the chamber walls. With a multichannel analyzer, one will be then be able to sort out any high energy arrivals from the low energy trash, as pulse heights in these detectors are proportional to incident energy. This, in a word, is what I eventually plan to do. I have a couple of MCAs in house and am planning soon to hook one up to a relatively dumb DOS/3.1 computer (the MCA is even dumber) to see if I can do some elementary data acquisiton.

If I can't find an easy way to introduce boron into a fusor without poisoning or blowing myself up or incurring regulatory wrath, I'll probably go the D-D route for a while and set up to try and catch protons, as the D2 is a lot easier to get and handle, though I'd rather be counting alphas than either protons or neutrons.....

Richard Hester