Deuteron Acceleration and Neutron Production in Pinch Discharges

Deuteron trajectories have been calculated for the crossed electric and magnetic fields generated by a rapidly constricting current distribution in a $z$-pinch discharge. The results show that many ions are accelerated to high energies with a large value for their time-averaged axial velocity. A neutron-production model based upon nuclear collisions by these deuterons easily accounts for the observed characteristics of neutron emission.