LAUSR

Abstract One of the most important characteristics of the IEC device is performing of advanced fusion reactions without radioactive products. In this work, the IEC device is simulated based on the primary conditions similar to the UW-IEC device with 3He as working gas using Particle in Cell (PIC) method for 7, 5, and 1.4 mA Ion Injection Currents (IICs). Once the different 3He plasma species have stabilized, the results show that on average, the number of ions inside the device and cathode increases by 67.5% and 57.3%, respectively, whereas the number of electrons increases just by 3%. The results show that nearly all the electrons in the device accumulate inside the cathode and the ions oscillate around the center of device. The obtained results show that the cathodic current for 1.4 mA IIC is comparable with that of measured by the UW-IEC device with 8% difference. The simulations also show 500 s−1 fusion reaction rates, which is very close to the measured value of 482 s−1. These results approve the validity of simulation. By calculating the electric field and potential, the number and exact location of nested virtual anodes and cathodes which are of important parameters for confinement quality are obtained. Also, this validated simulation could be used in future works in order to optimize the IEC device and its fusion reaction rate without any more experiments.