Experimental Study of Fast Deuterons and Electrons in DPF Fusion Plasma

Plasmas of nuclear-fusion parameters, which are produced in tokamaks or during interactions of powerful lasers with solid-targets as well as in Z-pinch discharges, deal with similar problems, e.g. mechanisms of the generation of high-energy beams of charged particles, similar to those met in plasma of solar flares 1 - 2 . The reported experimental research on D-D fusion reactions was performed with a dense plasma-focus (DPF) facility 3 operated at a discharge current above 1 MA and the total neutron yield at the level of 10 11 . The applied diagnostics made it possible to observe the appearance and evolution of ordered spherical- and toroidal-structures which could be formed by closed currents and their magnetic fields generated by a dynamo action. Many fast electrons and deuterons are emitted from small sub-millimeter regions into narrow solid angles during a decay of the mentioned plasma structures. These sources are evidently the regions of high energy density. Their nodule configurations correspond with a filamentary structure of the discharge current, in which magnetic energy is transformed in kinetic one during magnetic reconnections. This physical picture of local releases of energy contained in the ordered plasma structures can be of interest also for tokamak, laser-fusion, and astrophysical researchers.