Experimental study on deuterium–deuterium thermonuclear fusion with interface confinement

Abstract

Nuclear fusion is recognized as the energy of the future, and considerable effort and capital have been put into the research of controlled nuclear fusion in the past decades. The most challenging thing for controlled nuclear fusion is to generate and maintain a super high temperature. Here, a sonication system combined with micro-scale fluid control techniques was built to generate cavitation within a limited region. As bubbles were rapidly compressed, the high-temperature plasma generated inside led to particle emissions, where a Cs₂LiYCl₆:Ce³⁺ (CLYC) scintillator is used to collect the emission events. The pulse shape discrimination methods applied to the captured signals revealed that only gamma ray events were observed under sonication with normal water, while obvious separation of neutron and gamma ray events was surprisingly identified under sonication with deuterated water. This result suggested that neutrons were emitted from the sonicated deuterated water, i.e., deuterium–deuterium thermonuclear fusion was initiated. This study provides an alternative and feasible approach to achieve controllable nuclear fusion and makes great sense for future studies on the application of fusion energy.