Fusion rates in deuterium-loaded titanium and palladium foils jumped by about a quintillion times at low energies, revealing what researchers call a new field of materials-driven fusion.
Below 2.5 keV, the reaction rate did not keep falling as standard theory predicts; it flattened into a plateau when deuterium ions struck the metal-loaded targets.
Electrons and microscopic defects in the host metals appear to shield repulsive forces between deuterium nuclei, letting them approach closely enough to fuse more often.
The team said the repeatable setup could help engineers tune materials to control fusion and eventually build smaller neutron generators for cargo screening, planetary science, and medical imaging or therapy.
The findings also link fusion research with materials modeling, including Ames National Laboratory's DuctGPT effort to predict how materials behave under heat, radiation, and mechanical stress in fusion systems.