Production of high energy deuterons in the reaction:3He+3He?4He+2H+e ++v

Abstract

Experiments on the reaction: 3He+ 3He--* 4He+ 2He using a single four detector telescope have shown evidence for the production of deuteron pulses, consistent with the 2He--+ZH+e+ +v fusion reaction in the final state. New measurements on the same reaction using improved techniques viz. A) a windowless 3I-Ie gas target and B) c~-d correlation detection with 5 ns resolving time and antipileup circuitry have been performed. Calibrations were obtained from the 7Li+ 3He--~ 2H + 4He + 4He reaction spectra. The correlation angles were 30 ~ and 97 ~ for the alphas and deuterons respectively. Deuteron pulses have been observed, correlated with alpha particles. A cross section of (1.7 +0.5) nbsr -1 MeV -t was obtained consistent with previous measurements using a single telescope.Nuclear Reactions: 3He(3He, c~)2H, E = 13.6 MeV, measured d 2 a/df2dE.