Computational studies of collisional processes in inertial electrostatic glow discharge fusion devices

Computational studies of the Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) devices have yielded amazing results. An analytical model of charge exchange collisions in the IEC plasma has been developed to include ion time-of-flight and fusion neutron generation rates. Results from the model simulating 10 mA of D₂⁺ ion current in a 30-cm diameter IEC device at 50 kV match the experimental results of 10⁶ fusion neutrons per second. The model has also been used to find the effects of grid diameter on neutron yield and show that it scales as diameter^-0.4058. This factor is very close to the experimental scaling factor of diameter^-0.4171.