Laser-induced variable pulse-power TOF-MS and neutral time-of-flight studies of ultradense deuterium

The ultradense atomic deuterium material named D(-1) is conveniently studied by laser-induced Coulomb explosion methods. A well-defined high kinetic energy release (KER) from this material was first reported in Badiei et al (2009 Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 34 487) and a two-detector setup was used to prove the high KER and the complex fragmentation patterns in Badiei et al (2009 Int. J. Mass Spectrom. 282 70). The common KER is 630 plus or minus 30 eV, which corresponds to an interatomic distance D--D of 2.3 plus or minus 0.1 pm. In both ion and neutral time-of-flight (TOF) measurement, two similar detectors at widely different flight distances prove that atomic particles are observed. New results on neutral TOF spectra are now reported for the material D(-1). It is shown that density changes of D(-1) are coupled to similar changes in ordinary dense D(1), and it is proposed that these two forms of dense deuterium are rapidly transformed into each other. The TOF-MS signal dependence on the intensity of the laser is studied in detail. The fast deuteron intensity is independent of the laser power over a large range, which suggests that D(-1) is a superfluid with long-range efficient transport of excitation energy or particles.