New physical possibilities in compact neutron sources

Some non-traditional physical approaches to increase the yield parameters of compact impulse neutron sources based on (d,t) or (d,d) nuclear reactions are considered. For obtaining a high level of accelerating fields and intense ion current in a small accelerating volume, the effective magnetic suppression of the electronic component in an acceleration gap (ion diode with magnetic isolation), the collective acceleration of deuteron ions from laser plasma, and the acceleration of plasmoids are studied. Mainly these approaches have been realized by using the laser irradiation to create a plasma in an ion source. Experimental results and numerical calculations point out that utilizing these methods can result, using a campact laboratory apparatus (e.g. based on sealed neutron tubes), in a yield of 108–1010 n/pulse, pulse duration 10−8–10−6 s, pulse rate 10–103 Hz and lifetime about 107 shots.