Enhancement of the Deuteron-Fusion Reactions in Metals and its Experimental Implications

Recent measurements of the reaction d(d,p)t in metallic environments at very low energies performed by different experimental groups point to an enhanced electron screening effect. However, the resulting screening energies differ strongly for divers host metals and different experiments. Here, we present new experimental results and investigations of interfering processes in the irradiated targets. These measurements inside metals set special challenges and pitfalls which make them and the data analysis particularly error-prone. There are multi-parameter collateral effects which are crucial for the correct interpretation of the observed experimental yields. They mainly originate from target surface contaminations due to residual gases in the vacuum as well as from inhomogeneities and instabilities in the deuteron density distribution in the targets. In order to address these problems an improved differential analysis method beyond the standard procedures has been implemented. Profound scrutiny of the other experiments demonstrates that the observed unusual changes in the reaction yields are mainly due to deuteron density dynamics simulating the alleged screening energy values. The experimental results are compared with different theoretical models of the electron screening in metals. The Debye-H\"{u}ckel model that has been previously proposed to explain the influence of the electron screening on both nuclear reactions and radioactive decays could be clearly excluded.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, REVTeX4, 2-column format. Submitted to Phys. Rev. C; accepte

Quantum mechanical ab-initio simulation of the electron screening effect in metal deuteride crystals

In antecedent experiments the electron screening energies of the d+d reactions in metallic environments have been determined to be enhanced by an order of magnitude in comparison to the case of gaseous deuterium targets. The analytical models describing averaged material properties have not been able to explain the experimental results so far. Therefore, a first effort has been undertaken to simulate the dynamics of reacting deuterons in a metallic lattice by means of an ab-initio Hartree-Fock calculation of the total electrostatic force between the lattice and the successively approaching deuterons via path integration. The calculations have been performed for Li and Ta, clearly showing a migration of electrons from host metallic to the deuterium atoms. However, in order to avoid more of the necessary simplifications in the model the utilization of a massive parallel supercomputer would be required.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, svjour class. To be published in Eur. Phys. J.

Femtosecond dynamics snapshots of the early ion track evolution

The energy dissipation and femtosecond dynamics due to fast heavy ions in matter is critically reviewed with emphasis on possible mechanisms that lead to materials modi cations. Starting from a discussion of the initial electronic energy deposition processes, three basic mechanisms for the conversion of electronic into atomic energy are investigated by means of Auger electron spectroscopy. Results for amorphous Si, amorphous C and polypropylene are presented and discussed. Experimental evidence for a highly charged track region as well as for hot electrons inside tracks is shown. As follows mainly from Auger electron spectroscopy, there are strong indications for di erent track production mechanisms in di erent material

Evidence for moving breathers in a layered crystal insulator at 300K

We report the ejection of atoms at a crystal surface caused by energetic breathers which have travelled more than 10^7 unit cells in atomic chain directions. The breathers were created by bombardment of a crystal face with heavy ions. This effect was observed at 300K in the layered crystal muscovite, which has linear chains of atoms for which the surrounding lattice has C_2 symmetry. The experimental techniques described could be used to study breathers in other materials and configurations.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Search for short time phase effects in the electronic damage evolution A case study with silicon

This work focusses on the production and decay properties of inner shell vacancies and valence band excitations induced by swift highly charged ions interacting with amorphous and crystalline Si. High resolution electron spectra have been taken for fast heavy ions at 1.78 5 MeV u as well as for electrons of similar velocity incident on atomically clean Si targets of well defined phase. Various Augerelectron structures are analyzed concerning their width, their intensity and exact peak position. All measured peaks show a small shift towards lower energy when the charge of the projectile is increased. This finding is an indication for a nuclear track potential inside the ion track. A detailed analysis of the Auger electron spectra for amorphous Si and crystalline Si 111 7 x 7 points to a small but significant phase effect in the short time dynamics of ion track

Ultrafast electronic processes in an insulator The Be and O sites in BeO

The short time dynamics of amorphous beryllium oxide a BeO has been investigated for electronic excitation ionization by fast incident electrons, as well as by Ar7 , Ar15 , Xe15 , and Xe31 ions at velocities of 6 10 the speed of light. Site specific Auger electron spectra induced by fast heavy ions are the central point of this investigation. Electron induced Auger spectra serve as a reference and electron energy loss EELS spectroscopy as well as resonant inelastic X ray scattering RIXS are invoked for quantitative understanding. For the heavy ion case, we observe strong variations in the corresponding spectral distributions of Be K and O K Auger lines. These are related to local changes of the electron density, of the electron temperature and even of the electronic band structure of BeO on a femtosecond time scale after the passage of highly charged heavy ions