UCLA researchers create nuclear fusion in lab

The publication was written by a UCLA team that includes Brian Naranjo, a graduate student in physics; James Gimzewski, professor of chemistry; and Seth Putterman, professor of physics. Gimzewski and Putterman are members of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.

The team initiates fusion of deuterium — heavy hydrogen, the fuel used in conventional plasma fusion research — using the strong electric field generated in a pyroelectric crystal. Such materials produce electric fields when heated, and the researchers concentrated this field at the tip of a tungsten needle connected to the crystal. In an atmosphere of deuterium gas, this generates positively charged deuteron ions and accelerates them to high energy in a beam.

When this beam strikes a target of erbium deuteride, Naranjo and colleagues detect neutrons coming from the target with precisely the energy expected if they were generated by the nuclear fusion of two deuterium nuclei. The neutron emission is 400 times stronger than the usual background level.

The researchers say that this method of producing nuclear fusion won't be useful for normal power generation, but it might find applications in the generation of neutron beams for research purposes, and perhaps as a propulsion mechanism for miniature spacecraft.

Publication: The Journal Nature, April 28, 2005 "Observation of Nuclear Fusion Driven by a Pyroelectric Crystal"

For more information about the project, visit http://rodan.physi … u/pyrofusion

Source: UCLA