Studies of neutron production in linear deuterium pinches

Abstract

With the experimental set-up, described earlier⁸), further studies of high current linear deuterium pinches have been made. The stabilizing effect of an external magnetic field has been investigated. This effect has appeared in two ways. Firstly, peaks in the voltage curves and dips in the current curves, which are interpreted as due to sausage instabilities, disappear at B_z 〉 400 gauss. Secondly, the number of subsequent pinches is increased by the field and as many as six consecutive pinches have been observed. The dependence of the neutron yield on the magnetic field has been found to be very weak, the yield decreasing only by a factor of $\text{2}\text{3}$ for 760 gauss. The influence of the gas pressure on the number of neutrons produced has been studied in the region 9 to 30 microns. For B_z = 0 a slight decrease in the neutron yield with increasing pressure has been observed. With the field applied the yield seems to be almost independent of the pressure. The resistance of the discharge has been found to decrease to 0.01 ohm within the first tenths of the discharge period. The results are discussed in connection with the results of other investigators.