Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Re: Fusor uses for microwaves:
Date: Aug 21, 02:51 am
Poster: Scott Stephens

On Aug 21, 02:51 am, Scott Stephens wrote:

>Good idea here.. This technique, in a slightly different form, is used in high power TEA lasers. The idea is to generate a HV pulse that is short enough that it is over before an arc can form. Typical pulse durations would be in the few tens of nSec range. So, if you do a series of pulses, spaced 10-20 nSec apart, what do you have? Why 50-100 MHz RF. The only hangup with RF, as opposed to fast pulses, might be the relatively slow rise time of the RF waveform, which promotes the development of an arc. You might want a HV RF charging supply with a breakover gap to sharpen the pulse up.

In a TEA laser you have high pressure, atmospheric pressure, gas. In a fusor you have a pretty good vaccum. I don't think an arc or dense pinched discharge could from.

>
>As the previous writer suggests, getting 100 kV with RF is pretty easy, since transformers at high frequency are small and efficient.

But if you do some designing I'll bet you'll find it unfeasable to generate over a few kilovolts above 10 MHz. Your transformer (1/4 wave line) will have a lower Z than your fusor electrodes.

Then again I believe the spherical resonance of a fusor will be several hundred megahertz for electrons and a few MHz for ions.

I havn't calculated anything iether, just SWAG'in it.