Experimental study of the neutron emission mechanisms in a Filippov-type plasma focus device

Abstract

The results of an experimental investigation of neutron emission characteristics in the Filippov-type plasma focus facility “Dena” (90 kJ, 25 kV, 288 µF) with D₂ + %1 Kr as working gas are presented. From the experimental results, one can conclude that both thermonuclear and nonthermonuclear mechanisms are always present in neutron production, but their contributions to the total neutron yield are strongly dependent on the initial pressure and discharge voltage. It has been found that at constant discharge voltages and low pressures the beam—target interaction mechanism plays an important role in the neutron production and with increasing the pressure, its role decreases and the importance of thermonuclear mechanism increases. Also at constant pressures, the contribution of beam—target interaction mechanism in neutron production decreases with increasing the discharge energy. The value of the α index in the empirical neutron yield scaling law Y_n ∝ I^α ∝ E^α/2 was found to be about 3.82.