Low-energy nuclear reactions in metals

Abstract

In order to investigate the interplay between nuclei and their surroundings, we have studied deuteron induced fusion reactions in metals at very low energies. We summarize the results on the following measurements; reaction rates of the D(d,p)T reaction in various metals for bombarding energies between 2.5 and 10 keV and those of the 6,7Li(d,α)4,5 He reactions in Pd and Au for bombarding energies between 30 and 75 keV. These measurements clearly showed that the low energy nuclear reactions are strongly affected by the metal environments surrounding the nuclei.