Approach for Fusion Rate Amplification Through Plasmonic Resonance in Closely-Packed Nanospheres

Advances in nanomaterial synthesis open a new frontier in studying fusion reactions at low energies. Here we describe an approach for fusion rate amplification through plasmonic enhancement at “hotspots” of closely packed gold nanospheres by pulsed laser excitation. Computations demonstrate field enhancement factors in the nano-gaps on the order ∼103 with resulting screening energies above U∼3.5 keV for incident laser fields E ∼ 109 V/m. We estimate the D+D fusion reaction rate when deuterium is introduced into the “hotspots” as D 2 gas, as D 2O heavy water, and in a palladium–deuteride shell. Reaction rates may exceed R ∼ 104/s/µm 2 of monolayer under steady laser operation, or R ∼ 106/s/gram of gold nanospheres, over an accessible range of material synthesis. This approach offers a feasible pathway to studying non-thermal fusion at low energy by dynamically focusing collective modes in nano-engineered systems.