Fusion reactor
Designing an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion reactor and doing some fun experiments in it
During middle and high school, I built a variation on the design for a Farnsworth Fusor, which is an inertial electrostatic confinement device that can act as a weak neutron source by fusing small quantities of deuterium ions. I used my reactor to perform a series of rudimentary experiments for Intel ISEF which demonstrated a method of neutron collimation by using an additional ion gun to impart a velocity differential in the deuterium ions, skewing the momentum distribution of the neutrons produced in the fusion reactions. Here are a couple of old photos of the reactor.
One of the first runs I did with the fusion reactor (this picture was taken with an air backfill, so no fusion was produced in this run). The original reactor design had a toroidal accelerator grid.
The vacuum chamber of the reactor around 2011.
The x-ray transformer and bridge rectifier which I used as a high-voltage source for the reactor.
Bubble detectors calibrated to 2.45MeV detect the high energy neutrons emitted with a deuterium fusion reaction.
Design for an ion gun which I added later onto the reactor.
Toroidal accelerator grid with a deuterium backfill.
Spherical accelerator grid wth a deuterium backfill.
At certain pressures, plasma "jets" can sometimes be seen.
You can also use a magnet on the outside of the chamber to pull the charged plasma toward the edge.