Helium as a Surrogate for Deuterium in LPI Studies

Table 1

Comparison of important physical properties for H₂, D₂, DT, helium, and neopentane. It shall be noted that DT is technically a two-ion component plasma, but due to the minimal difference in mass, it behaves very similarly to a plasma with unique ion species, which cannot be assumed for neopentane.

Property	Hydrogen	DT	Deuterium	Helium	Neopentane
Advantage	Cosmic abundance	Ideal fusion fuel	Nonradioactive fusion fuel	Nonflammable	High normal density
Ion species	Unique	2-component	Unique	Unique	2-component
2-mean molecular mass	2 µ	5 µ	4 µ	4 µ	72 µ
Mean ion mass	1 µ	2.5 µ	2 µ	4 µ	4.24 µ
Mean nuclear charge	1	1	1	2	2.47