APPLICATION OF A GE DETECTOR TO SEARCH FOR FAST-NEUTRONS FROM DD FUSION IN DEUTERIZED PD

A low-background high-resolution Ge detector surrounded by neutron scatterers was applied to investigate fast neutrons from the electrochemically loaded Pd-D system. The neutron flux was obtained by measuring the yields of the gamma-rays following inelastic scattering of the fast neutrons from nuclei in the scatterers. The detector was shown to be very sensitive in the search for rare neutron events such as d-d fusion at room temperature. The observed spectrum shows no statistically significant excess of the gamma-rays above the background. The upper limit on the fusion rate was obtained as lambda(f)<1.6.10(-24)(ddn)fusions/(dd)pair/s.