Experiment on Ion-Beam-Collider for D-^3He Fusion

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This research was performed to examine a new method for D-^3He fusion. To generate the fusion reaction, counterstreaming energetic ions are produced and trapped in the radial effective potential well whichis formed by a radial electric field and an axial magnetic field. A 2D-Fokker-Plank code shows that a net fusion output is obtainable at an energy confinement time in a probably accessible range. Fundamental features of this method have been examined through experiments as follows.(1) A dense plasma core as the ion source can be formed and maintained in a axial magnetic field. The core plasma is produced by exciting hilicon waves of a helical mode under preferential pumping of neutral gas.(2) The core is biased at a high positive potential for ion beam extraction. Here, magnetic insulation well works to sustain the potential up to 3 kV at the magnetic field of 3 kG. The formed radial electric field becomes very strong at the core surface.(3) Ions are easily extracted from the core plasma by the radial electric field and observed their orbits are in good agreement with the theoretical ones. Thus, counter-collisions among fast ions are really present.(4) Fatal instabilities have not been observed yet.The magnetic field available in the present stage is not enough to cause fusion. However, it will be possible if the field is increased to 5 kG or higher.