Search for nuclear fusion induced by Dn+ and Nn+ cluster ions in deuterated targets

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Abstract
According to the results of the Brookhaven group, d,d fusion can be achieved in deuterated targets when using water clusters, deuterated or not, for energies per unit mass even much below 1 keV. We have investigated the extreme situation of pure deuterium cluster bombardment, choosing a similar range of energy per deuteron in order to make a significant comparison. With such projectiles, magnetically mass selected after acceleration, no fusion event has been detected and our experimental upper limit for the fusion rate was more than two orders of magnitude below the typical values reported with deuterated water clusters. This result supports the picture reported in most of the theoretical models that any favorable energy transfer to the deuterons requires the presence of a heavier collision partner in the projectile. In the course of these experiments, the only possibility for assessing the effect was to use nitrogen instead of deuterium. Unfortunately, only the deflection of the low mass projectiles off the target direction was experimentally feasible. Since fusion was observed both with the pulsed cluster beam and with the continuous leak beam of atomic and molecular species, a contamination by residual deuterons is most likely responsible for the effect.

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