Development of Titanium Drive-in Solid Target for a Compact Fast Neutron Generator

A solid target developed for a compact fast neutron generator was fabricated with the OFHC-copper material including the water cooling structure to overcome the heatload by the injection of low energy deuterium ion beams (less than 100 keV/100 mA). The solid-target was shown in a shape of circular cone-type with a beam entrance diameter of 10 cm to reduce the heatload (per unit-area) of target. Beam-injected surface of the copper target was coated by a titanium layer with a thickness of 4~10 μm using the PVD plasma ion irradiation process of titanium to insert the injected deuterium ions into the target surface through the drivein method. The coated thickness of titanium layer was evaluated for four samples of the coated debris by using the measurement of field emission-scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). The heatload performance of solid target was confirmed by the calculation of heatload distribution by using the commercial codes with an ion beam heatpower of 10.7 kW injected into the inner surface of beam target. A peak power density of 5.3 MW/m was estimated with the cooling water flow. A maximum temperature of 73°C (with an acceptable maximum temperature of 120°C) in the inner surface of target and a maximum cooling water temperature of 52°C were also evaluated by the calculating result of commercial codes with a maximum flow-rate of 2.4 m/s at the entrance stage of cooling water.