Ionic Solid Hydrogen Fuel: Production and Properties of Hydrogen ion and Energetic Neutral Clusters

We have demonstrated that the production of intense beams of positive hydrogen cluster ions is quite feasible, and should allow their rapid embedment in a H2 matrix. However, stabilization of these species by codeposition of hydrogen cluster anions does not appear to be useful approach, because of the extreme difficulty we have encountered in generating the negative hydrogen cluster beams. Whereas the hydrogen anion clusters may be unstable in the gas phase, with the matrix H may form a cavity by repelling the surrounding H2 molecules to produce a locally stable structure. A much more promising way of achieving an extremely high energy density for rocket propulsion is the use of hydrogen-containing cluster ions for igniting nuclear fusion cluster-impact fusion, CIF. js