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: Pulsed power vs steady state
Date: Apr 20, 7:05 pm
Poster: Jim Lux

On Apr 20, 7:05 pm, Jim Lux wrote:

Some time ago, Richard commented on pulsed fusion in the Fusor. You could run high peak currents (and hopefully high N fluxes) without melting everything inside. Is there any feel for what an optimum voltage, pulse width, and current would be? I seem to recall 400 Hz for a rep rate. In a steady state system, the voltage will essentially be determined by the gas presssure and electrode configuration. However, in a pulsed system, you could get much higher voltages (would this increase the yield because the ions are moving faster?) If the pulse is short enough, an arc won't form. The big TEA lasers use a small low energy preionization pulse to create the ions, then the big fast pulse to excite them. Would a similar strategy be useful in a fusor? In the laser the technique is used to increase the excited ion density in the cavity, without having an arc develop.

Maybe this is getting closer to the more conventional Gow/Ruby Crossed Field sources or the various pinch schemes?