Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Modeling and Comparison to Experiments

In inertial-electrostatic confinement (IEC), a high voltage accelerates ions between concentric, nearly transparent grids, usually in spherical geometry. For typical parameters ($\sim $0.3 Pa $\approx $ 2 mTorr, $\sim $100 kV, $\sim $30 mA, $\sim $0.5 m anode diameter), atomic and molecular processes dominate operation. A numerically solved integral equation[1,2] approach to modeling D$^{+}$, D$_{2}^{+}$, D$_{3}^{+}$, and D$^{-}$ ions passing through D$_{2}$ background gas will be summarized. The approach yields the energy spectra of ions and neutrals and the radial profile of the neutron production. Comparisons with experimental data for a University of Wisconsin IEC device will be presented.\newline[1] G.A. Emmert and J.F. Santarius, ``Atomic and Molecular Effects on Spherically Convergent Ion Flow I: Single Atomic Species'', Phys. Plasmas 17, 013502 (2010) \newline[2] G.A. Emmert and J.F. Santarius, ``Atomic and Molecular Effects on Spherically Convergent Ion Flow II: Multiple Molecular Species'', Phys. Plasmas 17, 013503 (2010).