In one minute

Huke, Czerski and Heide study deuteron-deuteron fusion inside metals at energies below the Coulomb barrier, which calls for techniques beyond standard nuclear physics procedures. With an electrostatic accelerator and various self-implanted metal targets, they measure fusion cross-sections enhanced compared with gas-target experiments. The electron screening energies come out about an order of magnitude larger than in gas targets and well above theoretical predictions. Two effects strongly shape the raw data: deuterium's high mobility in solids and contamination layers that form on the surface under ion beams in high vacuum. They describe a differential acquisition and analysis method, because standard procedures that ignore these effects give badly wrong screening energies.

Measurement of the enhanced screening effect of the d + d reactions in metals