CRYSTALLIC FUSION

Mystery of material science: a freshly made crystal of lithium niobate has an electric field of 15 MegaVolts/cm!

What are the limits  that  quantum physics  imposes on the electromagnet fields that spontaneously originate in crystals?

 

Scintillations produced by deuterium ions that strike a phosphor screen. The ions are accelerated to high energy by a ferroelectric crystal. In the introduction change

Scintillations produced by deuterium ions that strike a phosphor screen.  The ions are accelerated to high energy by a ferroelectric crystal.

 

 

Shown at the left is a phosphor screen that glows blue when struck by high energy ions.  The device used to produce high energy ions relies on a pyroelectric crystal of lithium tantalate, which produces a strong electric field when heated to room temperature from freezing.  This field is focused until it is powerful enough to accelerate a beam of deuterium ions (proton-neutron pairs) to about 1% of the speed of light.  The next generation of ferroelectric crystals will make mm sized, switchable neutron/x-ray  sources available.  Will such devices find medical uses?


Crystallic fusion was mentioned in ‘Toy Story.’

Apparatus to generate and detect nuclear fusion

A crystal that is only 10 cc in volume can be used to produce nuclear fusion on command.  Lithium tantalate is a pyroelectric crystal which produces more than 100,000 Volts when heated to warm room temperature from freezing!  This field is focused by a tungsten tip mounted on the crystal so that it dissociates, ionizes, and then accelerates a beam of deuterium ions (proton-neutron pairs) to about 1% of the speed of light.  When 2 deuterium nuclei collide at this speed, they can generate nuclear fusion and release a neutron with an energy that is about ten times greater than the kinetic energy of the colliding particles.

Crystal Accelerator using Lithium Tantalate.

Crystal Accelerator using Lithium Tantalate.

Apparatus to generate and detect nuclear fusion using a crystal.

Apparatus to generate and detect nuclear fusion using a crystal.

 

When a lithium niobate crystal is heated by 10’s of degrees it accelerates electrons to energies in excess of 40 keV.  The fast electrons strike a zinc sulfide target which turns their kinetic energy into scintillations to make the patterns that you see in the movie.  Movie taken by William Wright,  and J.D. Brownridge was a big help to us.