A field evaporation deuterium ion source for neutron generators

Proof-of-principle experiments have demonstrated an electrostatic field evaporation based deuterium ion source for use in compact, high-output deuterium-tritium neutron generators. The ion source produces principally atomic deuterium and titanium ions. More than 100 monolayers of deuterated titanium thin film can be removed and ionized from a single tip in less than 20 ns. The measurements indicate that with the use of microfabricated tip arrays the deuterium ion source could provide sufficient ion current to produce 10^9 to 10^10 n/cm^2 of tip array area.