UC Berkeley

In this Crada we designed and fabricated plasma discharge devices and operated them with deuterium and hydrogen gases. We studied the dynamics of plasma discharged in the glow discharge regime. We quantified rates of fusion reactions between deuterium atoms and ions that we accelerated from plasma discharges into palladium targets. The results showed enhanced fusion reaction rates in metal hydrides compared to know rates form gas phase reaction, likely due to modifications of the electron screening potentials and associated tunnel barrier probability increases. We modeled this effect and published it in the peer reviewed publications listed above