Interactions of charged particles on surfaces

Charges of the same polarity bound to a surface with a large dielectric contrast exhibit an attractive long-range Coulomb interaction, which leads to a two-particle bound state. Ensembles of like charges experience a collective long-range interaction, which results in compacted structures with interparticle separations that can be orders of magnitude smaller than the equilibrium separation of the pair potential minimum. Simulations indicate that ensembles of surface bound nuclei, such as D or T, exhibit separations small enough to result in significant rates of fusion. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3270537