Evaluation of 3D printed buckyball-shaped cathodes of titanium and stainless-steel for IEC fusion system

An inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion device accelerates ions, such as deuterium (D) or tritium (T), to produce nuclear fusion and generate neutrons. The IEC's straightforward configuration consists of a concentric spherical transparent cathode at a negative bias surrounded by a grounded spherical anode. The effects of cathode properties on the neutron production rate (NPR) remain, to date, inadequately studied. This study aims to determine the impact of the cathode material on the NPR by investigating fusion reactions on the cathode surface. Two buckyball-shaped cathodes made of stainless steel (SS) and titanium (Ti), both of 5 cm diameter, fabricated by selective laser melting and 3D printing, are used for this investigation. A SS spherical chamber of 25 cm inner diameter is used as an anode in this experiment. A performance evaluation of surface fusion reaction in the IEC using SS and Ti grids is conducted by examining the NPR as a function of the applied voltage and grid currents at different gas pressures. So far, IEC with Ti and SS cathodes achieves NPRs of 2.32 and 1.41 × 10⁷ n/s, respectively, at 5.6 kW (70 kV, 80 mA). The normalized NPRs (NPR/I-cathode) from IEC using SS and Ti cathodes are compared. The results demonstrate that fusion reaction occurs on the cathode surface, and fusion increases with the applied voltage. The measured NPR/I-cathode using the Ti cathode is higher than that of the SS cathode by factors of 1.36–1.64 across the 20–70 kV range. Moreover, fusion on the Ti cathode surface enhances the total NPR significantly compared to the SS cathode under the same conditions. The Ti's considerable ability to accumulate D ions and molecules compared with that of SS explains the difference of measured NPR results.