Experimental evidence of impact ignition: 100-fold increase of neutron yield by impactor collision

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Jun 12;102(23):235002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.235002. Epub 2009 Jun 10.

Abstract

We performed integrated experiments on impact ignition, in which a portion of a deuterated polystyrene (CD) shell was accelerated to about 600 km/s and was collided with precompressed CD fuel. The kinetic energy of the impactor was efficiently converted into thermal energy generating a temperature of about 1.6 keV. We achieved a two-order-of-magnitude increase in the neutron yield by optimizing the timing of the impact collision, demonstrating the high potential of impact ignition for fusion energy production.