On Jul 31, 2007, at 11:44 PM, Michel Jullian wrote:
No heresy then :) Yes indeed your parallel plate capacitor
arrangement on the back side (right hand side) of the cathode is
capable of increasing electron density there, good idea!
A few comments:
1/ Any point in using two dielectric materials, why not just
metallize the right hand side of the thin glass to make the HV anode?
The thought was to start out with an approximation to something that
consistently works - something along the lines of Fig. 1 in:
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/SzpakSevidenceof.pdf
It would certainly be of much interest to place a pre-prepared co-
depsited cathode material in gas phase, in which case the surface
would be directly exposed to HV in hydrogen, with loading hopefully
sustained by the applied field.
2/ Assuming you agree with 1/, the charge density on the RHS of the
cathode only depends on the ratio of the HV to the thickness of the
dielectric and on the dielectric constant, the absolute value of
the HV doesn't matter right?
I've been turning this over in my head for days. I don't know. I
don't understand the results of Szpak cell with a mere 6000 V. This
is something that needs to be investigated I think.
3/ Why not make the HV anode in the shape of a grid, or a uniform
metallization with a small hole, so you could shine the laser at
90° to the cathode?
A grid may work but will only maximize loading if fully immersed in
electrolyte and this creates some of the interpretation problems
already associated with the Szpak cell arrangement. It might work if
the grid were in hydrogen gas. A HF AC superimposed over the DC
might provide extra ionization if needed to keep the loading up.
The back side cell seems to be a solution to this problem, though a
HV side gas phase loaded cell (loaded from the HV side) would be much
better I think if loading can be maintained. An approach to the gas
side loading might be to co-deposit a D-Pd layer on on a copper grid
or just copper wires and then use the Claytor gas loading method.
Another alternative is a gas-gas type cell, where hydrogen is
supplied from the front side in gas phase, through a thin Pd layer -
but there is no evidence to suggest such a cell would work, the H
fugacity would be low - it would be a shot in the dark.
I've considered the idea of shining a laser down a hole in the
cathode, or an outside loaded cathode tube, that just fits the
beam. In that case there is probably not much sense in keeping the
electrode highly charged. The effect would rely entirely on the
short term AC fields of the laser. I like the idea of starting with
a known, the Szpak cell arrangement, and seeing if very high DC
fields in modestly different arrangements than the Szpak cell have
any effect.
Another arrangement might be a triode arrangement, where current can
be run through the cathode from end to end independently from the
loading or field potentials. This current can be AC. Its purpose is
to cause lateral diffusion, and thus increase the tunneling rates and
stresses in the cathode. This was tried I think, without success,
back when few cells worked. It still might be interesting to try on
a reliable co-deposited cell.
One thing very bad about the back side cell arrangement where the HV
back side business end is deposited on an insulator is the cathode
will undoubtedly destroy itself by de-adhering. I figure it should
be good enough to see differing SEM results, microscopically visible
melting changes, etc. I don't know what material would be good to
limit diffusion rates and yet keep loading up. It would probably be
an alloy. I would be nice to find a high loading low diffusion rate
material that could be made thick, and which could ablate away
surface destroyed by fusion reactions. An alternative may be a gas
phase equivalent to a fluidized bed.
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
