The design and preliminary test of a portable unit for generating both neutrons and X-rays based on a high-intensity pulsed discharge plasma*

The conventional imaging technologies are not easily visualized to detect and identity various of materials. X-ray radiography can highlight heavier chemical elements well but not good at revealing lighter elements; By contrast, neutron radiography is good at visualizing lighter elements. A concept of combining the complementary benefits of X-ray and neutron radiography in one portable unit was introduced as the new imaging tool. A compact high-intensity pulsed discharge plasma source was applied to produce deuterons to generate neutrons by the fusion reaction D-D/D-T. Meanwhile, the secondary electrons were produced near the target by ions bombarding. The high voltage was used to accelerate electrons towards the ion source where their bremsstrahlung produces X-rays. The axes of X-ray emission and neutron emission can be parallel to create the images of the object one after the other. Now, the ion beam current was about hundreds milliampere and electron beam current was about tens of ampere with tens of Hz repetition rate. Some detailed technical issues and future works are also introduced and discussed in the text.